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BOARD OF EDUCATION , 

THE CITY OF NEW YORK 







TEN ADDRESSES 


Delivered Before 

Associate and District Superintendents of 
the New York City Schools and 
other Professional Bodies 




By 

WILLIAM L. ETTINGER 


SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 










1 



































































































































































































■ 



















TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

The Life Career Motive in Education. 9 

The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals. 16 

Americanization. 23 

Effective Supervision. 31 

Democratizing School Administration . 44 

Economy in School Administration . 57 

Facing the Facts. 68 

The Ethical Standards of the Teacher. 88 

Our Junior High School Problem. 96 

The American School Program from the Standpoint of the 

City. 116 















































































































THE LIFE CAREER MOTIVE IN EDUCATION 


Address before the General Session of the National Education Association 
Pittsburg, July 2, 1918 


one of the most inspiring addresses delivered 
at the meeting of your association in Boston 
in 1910, was a discussion of “The Life Career 
Motive in Education,” by the revered dean of 
American Education, President Emeritus 
Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard University, I 
have undertaken to indicate somewhat briefly the content that 
might be appropriate to that title in terms of present-day school 
administration. 

If time permitted, but fortunately for you it does not, I should 
be inclined to take as the expansion of my text, John Milton’s 
splendid definition of a complete education as “one which fits a 
man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all offices, 
both public and private, of both peace and war.” Properly 
interpreted, Milton’s words suggest a thorough, practical, honest, 
forward-looking type of education in which the sordid standards 
of the slacker and of the profiteer would have no place, because 
its who’e spirit would be that of energetic, unselfish, skilful social 
service, sufficient not only to insure successful endeavor in the 
piping times of peace, but also to battle valiantly in the present 
moment for those excelling ideals of democracy, which a brutal, 
rapacious militarism has placed in fearful jeopardy. The insistent 
demand of our people for an educational scheme coextensive with 
their whole life, generous in amount, and adequate in kind, is in 
harmony with the demand of our government that, both in public 
and in private life, its citizens ungrudgingly sacrifice their in- 



9 





The Life Career Motive in Education 


clinations, their property, and even their lives for the mainte¬ 
nance of ^nerican ideals. 

The thrilling events of the last few years have tremendously 
accelerated changes in our political and social life. State rights 
have given way to federalized, socialized control, labor has 
asserted and maintained its equal footing with capital, and a wide¬ 
spread spirit of degrading mammon-worship has been succeeded 
by a rebirth of idealistic patriotism such as the world has seldom, 
if ever before, witnessed. 

As might be expected, the most efficient instrumentality of 
democracy, the public school, has not escaped the social pressure, 
but we are so immersed in absorbing tasks that we often fail to 
recognize the kaleidoscopic changes going on about us. Only a 
few years ago, because of our naive assumption that all our 
pupils were destined to be bookkeepers, teachers, or Presidents 
of the United States, prevocational education along industrial 
lines was unknown, the little vocational education that existed 
was on the defensive, our secondary school work was separated 
from the business and industrial world by a yawning chasm, the 
adult worker was considered beyond the pale of our educational 
program, and the illiterate foreigner was a clannish pariah, whose 
Americanization was left to chance. 

Time will permit me to refer but briefly to a few of the 
educational changes in New York City made in response to the 
demand that the individual, of whatever age or status, may be 
free to fashion his career to meet both his own ideals and the 
demands of his country. 

At a recent convention of vocational educators in New York 
City, Dr. Philander P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of 
Education, in a spirit of prophetic aspiration, stated that a time 
would come in the history of education, when elementary school 
pupils would be brought into contact with the realities that form 
the bases of our industrial and our commercial life; and that 
the day would come when school children would alternate be¬ 
tween school and industry, so that theory taught in school would 

< • \ :n 




10 



The Life Career Motive in Education 


be put into practice in industry, and the pupils would return to 
school, enriched with concrete examples of practice by which 
theory may be illumined. Dr. Claxton also expressed the hope 
that the time would come when boards of education would not 
only open the school buildings to wage earners after school 
hours, but would open classes in stores and factories for those 
whose interest might best be served thereby. 

New York City is emphatically a city of realized visions, of 
dreams come true. Should you visit New York City to inspect 
our educational work, you will find that such visions have been 
realized. You will find that for three years past, children in our 
elementary and secondary schools have been given occupational 
experiences as a basis of self-determination; you will find that 
other children have been working part time in industry and part 
time in school; you will find that schools for wage earners are 
open not only before and after school hours, but that classes have 
been established in stores and in factories. 

Three years ago the elimination of pupils from the upper 
grades of our elementary schools and the demands of industry led 
us to experiment with industrial education in the grades, as a 
contrast experiment to numerous schools organized on a work- 
study-play plan. Our controlling idea was that adolescent boys 
and girls standing on the threshold of industrial life should be 
grouped in prevocational schools in which they would receive, in 
addition to instruction in formal subjects, such instruction and 
training in constructive activities, as would develop aptitudes and 
abilities of distinct economic value. At present the opportunity 
to rotate term by term through various shops is afforded in seven 
schools to approximately 3,000 boys and girls in the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth years. Through such experiences we firmly be¬ 
lieve that the pupils test their inclinations, discover their aptitudes, 
and glean an insight into the industrial and commercial world. 
The plan is essentially a protest against the average bookish 
curriculum, which assumes an identity of ability and social 
destination belied by everyday life. The occupational experi¬ 
ences are and ought to be a basis of self-realization and self- 


11 



The Life Career Motive in Education 


determination, for, to use Mikon’s words, the pupil has studied 
solid things as well as words and lexicons. Such work is the 
very essence of the stimulation, development, and guidance of 
the life career motive, which comes to fruition in attendance at 
the various vocational or technical high schools of the city. 

As I have referred to the gap formerly existing between our 
secondary schools and the commercial and industrial world, per¬ 
mit me to outline briefly our cooperative courses. As a mode of 
organization that decreases high school elimination by vitalizing 
the work, and assuring the pupil financial assistance while still 
in school, as a means of crystallizing life career motives, the 
plan is a splendid tribute to the genius of Dean Schneider of 
the University of Cincinnati, who was the pioneer in the de¬ 
velopment of the cooperative courses. 

There are ten selected high schools in New York City that 
offer cooperative courses in which 650 students of both sexes 
alternate weekly between high school and industry. A high 
school teacher, called a coordinator, is selected by the high school 
principal, to link the work of the school and industry. Special 
progressive courses, based upon the charting of the business of 
the cooperating firm, have been arranged for each type of in¬ 
dustry. These 650 students are in employment with 170 firms 
of the highest standing in various subdivisions of manufacturing, 
commerce, and transportation. Such courses afford our high 
school students an opportunity to secure a combination of prac¬ 
tical training and business or industrial experience. 

During the past school year these students earned approxi¬ 
mately $125,000. In these days of the high cost of living, ex¬ 
planation is unnecessary to show how this amount has been of 
great help in retaining high school students in school. The 
cooperative course offers the solution of many of the perplexing 
problems in education, both vocational and cultural, and solves, 
in part, the problem of vocational guidance and placement. 


12 




The Life Career Motive in Education 


Very interesting zones of educational expansion are those 
dealing with : 

(a) Children in employment still amenable to the com¬ 
pulsory education law. 

( b ) Adults of various types, but especially men or the 
women of foreign birth who feel the need of a knowledge of 
English speech and of institutional life to make them participat¬ 
ing Americans. 

( c ) Men subject to the draft who wish to perfect them¬ 
selves for admission to a technical branch of the service. 

( d ) Men and women in industry, commerce, or municipal 
employment who wish to better themselves. Literally, we provide 
for the waitress, the office boy, the salesgirl, the baker, the 
artisan, the shipbuilder, and, at the present time, the enlisted 
man. Indeed, this system of continuation work intended to sup¬ 
plement the service rendered by our evening school organization, 
is designed to satisfy every type of educational need of the aver¬ 
age earner. In general, the classes are in session some time 
during the working day between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 
in school buildings, municipal offices, settlement houses, or on 
the premises of the establishment in which the employee works. 

These day continuation classes may be grouped into six 
types: Compulsory continuation classes require the attendance 
of working children who are nongraduates and less than sixteen 
years of age. During four hours per week these children attend 
instruction to insure general culture and either prevocational or 
vocational training, depending upon whether or not the pupils 
have found their vocations. 

Industrial extension classes are practically classes for ap¬ 
prentices in the skilled trades. The subjects taught are shop 
mathematics, related English, mechanical drawing and the me¬ 
chanics of the industry. Thus 300 civilian apprentices are 


13 




The Life Career Motive in Education 


instructed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and smaller groups have 
been organized in the shipyards about New York harbor, and in 
the yards of the Long Island and the Baltimore & Ohio Rail¬ 
roads. 

Commercial extension classes have been organized in large 
commercial establishments and department stores for instruction 
in such subjects as stenography, typewriting, salesmanship, and 
merchandising. 

General improvement classes have been organized in depart¬ 
ment stores for junior employees less advanced than those in the 
preceding groups. 

Improvement classes give instruction of secondary grade to 
students such as civil service employees whose working hours 
enable them to have free time in the late afternoon which they 
desire to use for self-improvement. 

Other classes aim to Americanize the large number of 
foreigners in our city, as well as to educate in institutional life 
the newly enfranchised women voters. 

Perhaps this last phase of the work has received the greatest 
publicity. New York City is the great entry port for immigra¬ 
tion and is the great melting-pot of the country. Because of its 
resident foreign groups, it is the largest Jewish city in the world, 
the second largest Italian city, and the third largest Russian city. 
Within our pupil population we include approximately sixty 
different nationalities and therefore the problem of benevolent 
assimilation is essentially the work of our public school system. 
The present war conditions, including the necessity of throttling 
alien propaganda, have meant the extension and socialization 
of this work. During the term just closed, the average number 
of such classes in the evening schools, was 550. In addition there 
were approximately 60 classes organized in the day continuation 
schools. 

As still further evidence of the extent to which we are 
trying to meet the life needs of our population, it is interesting 


14 



The Life Career Motive in Education 


to note that in our evening schools, there were organized about 
60 classes for men subject to the draft call, who wished to equip 
themselves for admission to technical branches of the service in 
such lines as machine shop practice, electrical work, sheet-metal 
and foundry work,.radio and buzzer work, camouflage, aeroplane 
work, and automobile mechanics. At the present moment in 
response to the request of the War Department, we are using 
one of our best equipped vocational schools to train a contingent 
of 400 enlisted men in similar lines of work, for service “over 
there.” 

I hold no brief for a type of education in which culture and 
utility are mutually exclusive. An educational program founded 
upon the life career motive does not imply a scheme of gross 
utilitarianism. We must hold fast to our cultural heritage, but 
above all we must not fail to afford that equality of educational 
opportunity which is the fundamental thesis of democracy. Our 
ideal must be service rendered loyally and generously. There 
can be no conflict between the educational needs of our people 
and the demands of the government. To the extent that our 
school systems are responsive to and coextensive with the fondest 
hopes and the highest aspirations of our people, they constitute 
a bulwark against which no enslaving militarism can ever 
prevail. 


15 



THE TEACHER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
NATIONAL IDEALS 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, Sept. 20, 1918 


we begin the arduous work of the new school 
year, I deem it my duty and also my privilege 
to direct your attention to educational problems 
which require, for satisfactory solution, your 
broadest vision, your keenest intelligence, and 
your resolute application. 

The present titanic war has made our Anglo-Saxon civiliza¬ 
tion conscious of its ideals as contrasted with a Teutonic swash¬ 
buckler “Kultur” which threatened to impose upon us and upon 
our Allies a sordid militarism. Democracy, instead of being the 
shibboleth of politicians, has become the creed of millions of 
people of different nationalities, in defense of which nations 
rather than armies are waging a war unto death. Shocking 
indeed it is to realize that the paternalistic government and the 
resulting superficial prosperity of an alien people, which aroused 
the favorable commendation of many sincere students, were but 
the outward expression of a sinister exploitation of the nation 
in the interests of a greedy, ambitious autocracy. We spontane¬ 
ously find a new significance in Napoleon’s dictum that three- 
fourths of a fact lies in its spiritual value. 

This world war is a conflict of opposing ideals, of which the 
glistening bayonets and the rattling machine guns are but the 
material expression. During its progress, let us hold to the 
splendid thought of a little French peasant girl who, describing 
the t embattled armies facing each other across the Marne, wrote 



16 








The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


that although they were so close that a swallow with one sweep 
could wing his way across the shallow stream, yet in terms of 
truth, in terms of decency, in terms of honesty, in terms of right 
and wrong, the two armies were as remote from each other as 
are the polar stars. 

As partial compensation for the dreadful carnage and the 
appalling devastation that the war has wrought, there has been 
a spiritual awakening as a result of which the scales of ignor¬ 
ance, bigotry and mammon worship have dropped from our eyes, 
leaving us with a clearer insight into the fundamentals of indi¬ 
vidual and of national life. 

As our schools are the nation’s most potent instrument in the 
development of national ideals, it would be strange indeed if this 
world crisis did not compel changes in our conceptions as to the 
value and the function of education. We are called upon to 
scrutinize anew our work in terms of its underlying theories, its 
methods of instruction, and its discipline, in order that through 
reflection we may acquire that freshness of vision, that truthful¬ 
ness of aim, and that steadfastness of purpose necessary to insure 
the salvation of our democracy through the proper training of 
our future citizens. 

What is the truth concerning the value of the work in which 
we are engaged? Our results are apparently intangible, difficult 
of measurement, and often at seeming variance with the imme¬ 
diate demands of commerce and industry. But if the achieve¬ 
ments of ourselves and our Allies have demonstrated one fact 
above all others, it is that the moral fibre, the morale of the 
nation, is more vitally significant than any degree of material 
prosperity, and, moreover, that its quality is the fruitage of a 
proper educational system. Not the last line, but rather the first 
line of defense, is the public school system of our land, and it is 
no exaggeration to say that the battles of to-morrow are being 
won in the schools of to-day. 

Should not a consideration of such facts lend an increased 
dignity, a deeper seriousness, an enhanced value to our work as 


17 



The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


teachers? Should not cynicism, negligence, unskilfulness give 
way to the same degree of optimism, resourcefulness, and 
prowess that we expect of Pershing and his staff when they lead 
our men to battle? We who are soldiers behind the far flung 
battle-line, and into whose hands is entrusted the training of our 
country’s most precious heritage, must so saturate ourselves with 
the needs of the vital present and the demands of a promising 
and urgent future that our professional attitude, our methods of 
instruction, and our means of discipline will be a reflex of our 
matured point of view. 

It is imperative that every teacher within our system : 

(1) Shall be aggressively patriotic in word and deed in up¬ 
holding the standards set by President Woodrow Wilson, and in 
furthering all war measures which our nation sees fit to enforce. 

(2) Shall interpret history so as to reveal the enduring 
Anglo-Saxon principles of personal liberty, to which President 
Woodrow Wilson has given such eloquent expression. 

(3) Shall, through the ideals embodied in our literature, 
and through every-day contact in the school, emphasize the 
futility of strength divorced from righteousness. 

(4) Shall let the thrilling events of the present not only 
color, but also constitute the core of the subject matter of in¬ 
struction in the elementary and the high schools. 

(5) Shall promote the physical well-being of pupils. 

(6) Shall use methods of discipline which will foster 
initiative and spontaneity coupled with courtesy, self-restraint, 
and prompt obedience. 

(7) Shall make the utmost possible effort so to interest 
pupils in their own schooling that dropping out and juvenile delin¬ 
quency will be reduced to a minimum. 


18 



The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


Let me indicate briefly some of the problems which are of 
pressing importance, leaving to your own discretion their further 
elaboration. 

If we are to maintain our school organization at its high level 
of efficiency, we need an adequate supply of teachers. There¬ 
fore, I urge all teachers to remain in the service and to do their 
best to induce competent people to become candidates for admis¬ 
sion to the service. Our present staff has been depleted to such 
an extent that it has been found necessary to request the govern¬ 
ment to designate our work as an essential industry and to grant 
deferred classification to such members of our administrative, 
supervising, and teaching staff as are necessary to insure the 
proper maintenance of the schools. In connection with teachers’ 
applications for leave, either with or without pay, it will probably 
be necessary to insist that not only the immediate superior give 
approval, but that the commanding officer in the branch of service 
for entrance into which the candidate is making application shall 
certify not only that the services to be rendered are essential, but 
also that the applicant is peculiarly well qualified to render such 
service. 

It is my settled conviction that the teaching service must be 
made more attractive in terms of increased compensation and 
more helpful and more sympathetic supervision. You can help by 
devising an organized channel of expression, whether it be the 
present Teachers’ Council or a modified form of such organiza¬ 
tion, which will permit the teachers to voice suggestions, opinions, 
and requests with reference to the conduct of school work. 

Another problem of immediate importance is the matter of 
adequately housing our 800,000 pupils. As you are aware, the 
Federal authorities, after giving due consideration to our re¬ 
quests for building materials, have denied the request in toto. 
We must acquiesce in this decision. As our present school 
accommodations are inadequate, the ingenuity of all will be taxed 
to devise means of providing pupils with a full day’s schooling. I 
entreat your consideration and your cooperation in this matter. 


19 



The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


No plan of general application will be laid down, but the well 
recognized evils of certain types of double session or duplicate 
school programs should be avoided. Constructive suggestions, 
such as the modification of the school year program, the exten¬ 
sion of the school day, the school week, and the school year, the 
expansion of the opportunity classes in our summer schools, the 
development of more flexible grading schemes in our higher 
grades, the possibility of promotion by subjects, the extension of 
the intermediate type of school, may enable us to make the best 
of a regrettable situation. 

Americanization, both as a term and as a process, is very 
familiar to you, and therefore, in view of its present importance, 
let me simply warn you against the assumption that the bulk of 
Americanization work must be done through such agencies as 
evening schools, continuation classes, lecture centers, parents’ 
associations, or community centers. Effective as these agencies 
are, it is the beneficent multiple influence of the day school 
teacher, exerted throughout the day to furnish ideas and habits 
to our pupils, that insures the transformation of the alien home 
in foreign neighborhoods. Do all you can to promote the success 
of this Americanization work among adults, but do not forget 
that the children in your schools are the treasure bearers to the 
foreign home of that language equipment, that generous enthu¬ 
siasm for institutional life, and those habits of orderly living 
which constitute the essence of Americanism. 

Were my message to you one of detail, I would emphasize the 
necessity of economy of all kinds, whether it be in the use of 
supplies, the maintenance of equipment, or the honest execution 
of the daily program. I would expand upon the necessity of 
close attention to matters of methodology, such as the need of 
self checking in arithmetic, the desirability of insuring to every 
child a fairly rapid, legible style of penmanship and a mastery 
of the minimum spelling vocabulary proved to be the basis of 
ordinary business and social correspondence, the distinction to 
be observed in the reading process between oral rendition and 
thought getting, the development of clear-cut speech through 


20 




The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


ample exercise in the class room, and the necessity of treating 
history and geography as closely related subjects significant in 
our present day life. But I shall refrain from treating these 
matters, because I am confident that in the near future it will be 
possible, through the cooperation of the superintendents, princi¬ 
pals, and other supervisors to assure to the teachers a more 
helpful supervision than has been possible hitherto, and that, 
therefore, such matters will receive the attention their importance 
demands. 

Let me conclude by again referring to the war in which we 
are all engaged, whether we stand in the presence of a class in 
the heart of a ghetto or lie steel-helmeted in the fields of Flanders. 
To put forth our best efforts as teachers we must identify our¬ 
selves with the attempt of our Allies to preserve those rights 
of manhood, for the establishment of which our own nation was 
founded, and in the defense of which it is now pouring forth 
its richest treasure. These rights have been and still are in 
fearful jeopardy. Were we not a firmly united people, each and 
every one resolved to give his labor, his wealth, and even his life 
to guarantee those rights to posterity, the issue would be in doubt, 
but united as we are in every aspiration and endeavor, the battle- 
front extends not only to New York City, but to every village 
throughout the land. 

Last July, while attending the convention of the National 
Education Association in Pittsburg, I sat at the hotel window 
gazing out into the gathering twilight. The clouds were lower¬ 
ing, the atmosphere was smoke-laden, and in the distance a 
foundry, running a heat, was sending a shower of dazzling 
sparks. Across the way, on a neighboring building, I caught a 
glimpse of the “Stars and Stripes.” Like a flash, the gloom of 
the scene vanished, and I followed, as in a vision, that steel to 
the battle riven western front. Those sable clouds were trans¬ 
formed into the garment of a bereaved but triumphant democracy, 
and those fiery sparks were a golden crown unto her head. I 
proceeded to a meeting at which various representatives of our 
Allies spoke of the war in relation to education, and listened 


21 



The Teacher and the Development of National Ideals 


spelKbound to a beautiful story which, to my mind, is prophetic 
of the part we play in this war for democracy. It was related 
that France has shown her confidence in our army by giving into 
its keeping her most treasured possession—Alsace and Lorraine; 
that some of our boys were billeted near the home of Joan of 
Arc; that they were told the story of how Joan had been inspired 
by heavenly voices. Incredulous, they halted a poilu going by, 
and inquired if such voices were still heard in the land and 
would lead to the salvation of France. The Frenchman halted, 
and then said, “Messieurs, listen/’ In the distance they heard 
faintly but clearly the silver-throated bugle of the American 
forces sounding the call to battle and to victory. 


22 



AMERICANIZATION 


Address before the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs, at the 
Hotel Astor, New York City, November 14, 1918 


SIGNIFICANT theme that our American 
painters love to use is that of a vessel coming 
up the lower Bay, its decks thronged with im¬ 
migrants from the old world, who lean over 
the rail and scan with eager eyes the Statue 
of Liberty and the wonderful sky-line of lower 
Manhattan. Whether or not these newcomers, as our fellow- 
workers, realize the hopes, the aspirations, the resolutions which 
fill their minds at such moments, constitutes the question and 
also the problem of Americanization. 

For years before the outbreak of the war, New York City 
was the entry port for a million immigrants a year. Many of 
them became residents of our city and constituted local foreign 
groups which make New York unique, not only as the metropolis 
of the world, but as one of the largest Jewish cities, one of the 
largest Italian cities, and one of the largest Russian cities of the 
world. Until recently we naively assumed that we had assim¬ 
ilated these alien groups and that they formed an integral part 
of a united common-wealth. However, the conditions incident 
to the formation of our National Army, and the revelations with 
reference to insidious propaganda carried on through the daily 
press, fraternal organizations, and corrupted text-books, have 
awakened us to the startling fact that many of our immigrants 
are still with us but not of us in language and ideals. 

The discovery of these unfortunate conditions has given cur¬ 
rency to the question as to whether or not unrestricted immi- 



23 







A meric animation 


gration does not constitute a grave evil. Does not this influx 
of people from the European shores, without regard to national¬ 
ity, literacy, ideals, personal property, lead to unfortunate social 
conditions, whether we regard the problem from the standpoint 
of health, labor or decent living conditions ? Has: not the gener¬ 
ous reception of these polyglot people made possible heterogeneity 
of stock and ideals which makes it very difficult, or even impos¬ 
sible, to attain to a unified national consciousness? 

I trust you will not assume that, because I raise these ques¬ 
tions, I believe in their pessimistic implications. Quite the 
contrary. It requires but a moment’s reflection to convince one 
that we are and always have been an immigrant nation; that our 
robustness of mind and sturdiness of body are due, not to in- 
breeding of a decadent race, but to the contribution of many 
peoples. Ever since the days of Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, 
religious persecution, political unrest and economic pressure have 
sent to our shores the bulk of the people that constitute our 
nation. Prior to 1880 the tide of immigration flowed from 
northern Europe and meant that we were the recipients of stock, 
either English-speaking or closely allied, who were easily assim¬ 
ilated because of certain common bonds of language and ideas. 
However, since that time the immigration movement has swept 
southward through Europe and has brought to our shores people 
whose racial history makes the problem of Americanization 
or assimilation much more difficult. But, whether the people 
to be Americanized come from the broad steppes of Russia, 
the mountains of Sicily, the valley of the Blue Danube, or the 
rugged valleys of Armenia, the difficulties of welding them 
into an integral part of our citizenry are due to our ignorance, 
our crude technique and our lack of social sympathy, rather 
than to any inherent vice or weakness in those who seek refuge in 
our land. 

It is not my intention to discuss the problem of American¬ 
ization in all its phases, but to restrict my discussion to a rather 
narrow field served by our schools. As before intimated, the 
school is but one agency, and very often a very ineffective agency, 


24 



A mericanization 


in this entire matter. To the extent that neighborhood life, 
community institutions, industry and political institutions fail to 
do their share in transforming the alien, the work of the school 
is made relatively ineffectual. 

Permit me, then, to indicate to you in rather a cursory 
fashion, the principal features of the program of Americanization 
that is now being carried out in our evening schools. 

However, lest you assume that the work of Americanization is 
exclusively that of the evening schools, let me warn you that, 
although the bulk of Americanization work must be done through 
such agencies as evening schools, continuation classes, lecture 
centers, parents’ associations, and community centers, the abid¬ 
ing fact is that the chief instrument of Americanization is the 
day school. Effective as these other agencies are, it is the bene¬ 
ficent multiple influence of the day school teacher, exerted 
throughout the day to furnish ideals in habits to our pupils, that 
insures the transformation of the alien home and the foreign 
neighborhood. The children in our schools are the treasure- 
bearers to the foreign home, of that language equipmenr, 
that generous enthusiasm for institutional life, and those habits 
of orderly living, which constitute the essence of democracy. 

Permit me, then, to discuss briefly the Americanization work 
carried on chiefly in our evening schools. 

1. Our evening school principals have been assigned definite 
duties. 

The principal of each of the seventy-four evening elementary 
schools has been assigned a certain definite area, and placed in 
charge of the Americanization work of that section. The prin¬ 
cipal is instructed to get in touch with the social, civic, economic, 
religious and other groups operating within the district. A 
meeting is called, of the various leaders in this group, and plans 
are carefully worked out. Placards in various languages have 
been distributed, announcements made from the platform, the 
pulpit, the moving picture screens, etc., presenting the arguments 


25 



A meric animation 


for learning English and giving the location of the nearest eve¬ 
ning school. House-to-house visits have been made by such 
organizations as the Women’s Police Reserves, settlement 
workers, etc. Commercial and industrial centers are reached 
by four-minute speakers. Factory managers place in pay en¬ 
velopes slips advertising schools. Libraries cooperate by posting 
placards and distributing literature. Pupils in the day schools 
convey the message to the parents, about evening schools. This 
may take the form of a letter written to the parents by the child. 
When the campaign is finally completed, every man, woman and 
child in the district knows of the value of learning English and 
knows the location of the nearest evening school. 

2. We have cooperated with local selective drafted hoards. 

Complaints have been received from camp commanders that 
drafted men arrive in camp with low morale. Many of these are 
foreigners who do not know the aims of the war and are wor¬ 
ried about their friends at home, and such matters as allotments. 
Provost Marshal General Crowder has requested each draft 
board to name a committee of instruction, composed of three 
public-spirited men in each district, to remedy these conditions 
by providing instruction for men between the time they are 
classified and the time they are inducted into service. These 
instruction committees have organized into one central body. 
Through the cooperation of the local selective boards, it was pos¬ 
sible for us to reach every registrant over the signature of the 
chairman of the board in a franked envelope of the War Depart¬ 
ment. Registrants have been assembled in school auditoriums, 
registered by the teachers, classified, and sent to special classes, 
according to their educational needs. Special sets of lessons were 
prepared by the supervisor for use in these classes. One set is 
composed of sixty lessons on “Army English/’ another on 
“Getting Ready for Camp,” another “Why We Are at War,” 
“Keeping Fit to Fight,” “Insurance and Allotment.” These les¬ 
sons, while giving information indicated by the titles, also give 
the registrant proficiency in English. 


26 




A meric animation 


Moreover, under the act of Congress signed by the President 
of the United States in May, 1918, the Bureau of Naturalization 
of the United States Department of Labor is directed to co¬ 
operate with the educational authorities in each locality. The 
Chief Naturalization Examiner has cooperated with the Board 
of Education in instructing all persons appearing in his office 
to attend evening schools. He has prepared lists of such appli¬ 
cants and sent them to the schools nearest the residence of the 
applicant. Recently, in connection with the requirement that 
foreign-born persons registered in various local boards prove 
their citizenship status, much valuable assistance was given by 
this bureau in bringing into the night schools non-English- 
speaking people. 

We have cooperated with neighborhood groups, employers, 
and labor unions. 

Wherever homogeneous groups may be organized in con¬ 
nection with churches, settlement houses, and other similar insti¬ 
tutions, regularly appointed evening school teachers have been 
sent to these places, which, for the purpose of administration, 
have been made annexes to the nearest evening school. 

Day classes have been started immediately after working 
hours, for employees in various industrial establishments who find 
it more convenient to attend classes located in the factory, in¬ 
stead of going to evening schools. We have forty such classes 
now in operation and a large number are in the process of 
organization. 

In New York City there are many labor organizations com¬ 
posed almost entirely of non-English-speaking foreigners. Sev¬ 
eral large locals of garment-workers and bakers have established 
classes in connection with the Department of Education, not 
only in evening schools, but in labor lyceums and even in their 
meeting rooms. 

Not the least of the achievements of which we are proud is 
cooperation with the Women’s Suffrage Party in educating newly 


2 7 



A meric animation 


enfranchised women workers. Classes have been organized in 
various public school buildings in Manhattan, The Bronx, and 
Brooklyn, immediately after school hours, for the purpose of 
instructing women in the congested districts in the English 
language and in citizenship. These classes attracted women who, 
for various reasons, were unable to attend evening school. In 
many instances they were married women with children, who 
could not leave their homes in the evening. 

Our realization of the importance of educating the foreigner 
has led us to maintain all-year-round classes. During the past 
year the experiment was tried of having Americanization classes 
all year round without intermission. 

After the regular season had ended in March, 1918, ten 
schools were left open in central locations of the city, with ex¬ 
cellent results. The new state law makes it mandatory upon the 
city of New York to begin evening school work in all schools at 
the same time as day schools, and to keep the schools open dur¬ 
ing the entire day school year. This law went into effect Sep¬ 
tember 1, 1918, but it was found undesirable to open all schools 
at the beginning of the year. In all probability, during the next 
season only some schools will be opened the first week of Sep¬ 
tember, and the others about the first week in October. 

I will not weary you by discussing, in detail, the methods 
used in instructing a foreign class. In the New York city 
elementary schools we employ the direct, or dramatic method. 
The language of the classroom is English, no foreign language 
of any kind being permitted. The direct method uses every 
day action that can be illustrated and dramatized in the classroom 
as a means of teaching new words and phrases. By a series of 
carefully graded themes in a comparatively short time the 
ability to speak and understand and discuss the ordinary events 
of life is given. The reading and writing exercises accompanv 
the spoken word, and the three modes of communication ate 
taught at the same time. 


28 



A meric animation 


Furthermore, it might be well to emphasize the fact that we 
do not rely on book study alone to effect Americanization. By 
means of student participation in social activities, such as clubs, 
dances, concerts, the ordinary routine of class and school life, 
the student is made to feel that he is a part of a community. 
American ideals and ideas are imparted concretely through the 
use of those qualities that are regarded as distinctly American. 
One school night—Thursday night—is set aside for a distinctive 
set of community activities. Members of the various classes 
come together informally in certain forms of social activities such 
as dancing, clubs, etc. The various nationalities mingle with 
each other with such visitors as may be invited, and get to know 
each other. Physical training, in the form of dancing and 
games, is taught to foreign students, to get rid of uncouthness 
and awkwardness. A special teacher is employed for this. The 
money is well spent. The community work is under the direc¬ 
tion of a principal assisted by a specially trained teacher, known 
as a community worker. The function of this community worker 
is not only to organize the community activities of the school 
community clubs and dances, but also to obtain the cooperation 
of the community in which the school is located. 

I need not remind you that learning the English language is 
not sufficient to Americanize the foreigner. To make the stranger 
within our gates one of us, he must understand what is meant 
by citizenship in a democracy. The same methods should be 
employed in assimiliating the foreigner as in making the stranger 
welcome in a new community. Upon his first arrival, he should 
be welcomed. The older residents should visit him. He should 
be invited to share in the community life. It is mainly by 
example and practice that new modes of living are taught. 

The greatest argument for giving the franchise to women 
was the large number of intelligent educated women; the great¬ 
est reason against giving the right of franchise to women was 
the large number of illiterate and uneducated women. Wherever 
the standard of literacy is low in a community, the women are 
found to have even less educational equipment than the men. 


29 



A meric animation 


It is the duty of women’s clubs to do everything in their power 
to support day and evening school classes for Americanization. 
In your program, instead of limiting your Americanization work 
to literary programs, make a provision for active cooperation 
with the classes in your day and evening schools, visit such 
classes and, in your plans, include a program for making the 
stranger in your community welcome. By example show what 
is meant by citizenship in a democracy. 

Moreover, your whole social life must be colored by an atti¬ 
tude toward our foreign population that will insure ready ap¬ 
preciation of their problems and unified support of all their 
efforts to improve their social and industrial conditions. Too 
long have we regarded them as people to be exploited—hewers 
of wood and drawers of water—constituting a Helot class for 
whose spiritual and economic salvation we were in no way 
responsible. The problem and the process of Americanization 
should be regarded, not as a fad of passing interest to be dis¬ 
cussed today and then relegated to the domain of dead issues. 
Americanization should be conceived as an enduring problem 
affecting our whole national life, which will demand your best 
wisdom in Order that, in the world lighted by the lurid glare of 
St. Bartholomew’s massacre and rocked by the revolutions of a 
fanatic Bolshevism, we may live in a country in which peace and 
happiness founded on political and’ social equality, permanently 
abide. 


30 



EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, Sept. 1919 


ERMIT me to extend to you a most cordial 
greeting on your return to your official 
duties. I hope that your well-earned rest 
has given each of you a fund of sound 
health and good cheer that will serve to 
carry you through the work of the present 
effectiveness and optimism that will find its 
reflection in those whom you supervise. 

As a measure of the importance which I attach to the high 
position in the school system which you occupy, permit me to 
state that I know of no supervising official who can exert a more 
potent influence for weal or woe than a District Superintendent 
placed in responsible charge of scores of schools, hundreds of 
teachers and thousands of children. Each of you sets up stand¬ 
ards of professional attitude, of scholarship, and of teaching 
technique that do much to influence the lives of the teachers and 
the pupils subject to your care. 

I need not develop at length the truth of the foregoing propo¬ 
sitions. If your conception of the work which the State has 
entrusted to you is a lofty and inspiring one, intolerant of and 
exclusive of compromising standards, and consistent not only 
with loyal, energetic, and efficient performance of assigned 
duties, but also inclusive of a sympathetic readiness to assist in 
a thoroughly human, constructive way those subordinate to you, 
you will be a beloved superintendent, presiding over the destinies 
of schools in which teachers and pupils will delight to live. If 
your scholarship is constantly expanding to meet the many prob- 



31 





Effective Supervision 


lems—political, economic, and educational—that ever widen be¬ 
fore us, you will be an inspiring exemplar of that fullness of 
knowledge which the world demands of a teacher placed in 
authority. Your knowledge of the technique of our profession, 
based upon ripened experience and continued study, should prove 
an unfailing source of help to the teachers and pupils entrusted 
to your care. 

With your indulgence I shall discuss briefly several profes¬ 
sional matters that I deem of present importance. 

The first topic to which I wish to direct your attention is 
Section IX of the by-laws relating to your duties, adopted by 
the Board of Education, which, in practically all respects, con¬ 
forms to the provisions of the State Education Law, and which, 
therefore, will control your work during the present school year. 

As you know, there is no intention to make District Super¬ 
intendents directly subordinate to the Superintendent of Schools, 
as was the practice for many years past. On the contrary, the 
aim is to make you primarily responsible and responsive to the 
Associate Superintendent in whose divisional assignment you are 
included. In my opinion, efficient administration demands that 
there be a definite pyramiding of authority, so that communica¬ 
tions and recommendations will flow through definite channels. 

The by-laws, as adopted, provide that Associate Superin¬ 
tendents with geographic assignments shall maintain offices in 
schools in their respective divisions, and shall keep therein definite 
office days and office hours. Moreover, Associate Superintend¬ 
ents must spend at least one day each week within such divi¬ 
sions, not only in order that they may be fully acquainted with 
the needs of the territory, but in order that they may come into 
frequent contact with the district superintendents, the principals 
and the teachers of the schools, and thereby gain an intimate in¬ 
sight into the needs of the division. 

The by-laws indicate, in broad, general terms, the functions 
that should be characteristic of the best type of superintendent. 


32 



Effective Supervision 


“He shall study the needs of the districts, and shall be responsible 
for the efficient conduct of the schools as a whole, with reference 
to the accommodation of pupils, the grading of pupils, the trans¬ 
fer of pupils, the adjustment of the course of study to local 
needs, and such other matters as are necessary for the efficient 
and economical administration of the schools.” 

It would be unfortunate indeed if the controlling conception 
of the functions of the District Superintendent were that of a 
meticulous examiner and alphabetical rater of teachers, irre¬ 
spective of the teacher’s range of experience or degree of skill. 
It is perfectly conceivable that a superintendent may spend many 
years in such laborious work, without ever glimpsing larger 
problems which the work of the district may present. Therefore, 
it has been thought proper to make an explicit statement in the 
by-laws, of the larger aspects of work which should constitute 
the ever present problems of the progressive type of superintend¬ 
ent, and which not only measure the extent of his responsibilities, 
but also the greatness of his achievements. 

The by-laws specify that at least once each term the district 
superintendent shall inquire into matters relating to the physical 
equipment and maintenance of the schools under his supervision. 
With reference to this provision, let me emphasize the necessity 
of the district superintendent assuming a definite responsibility 
for examining and reporting upon, and, if needs be, insistently 
reporting upon the physical needs of the various schools. It 
should not be possible for any agency, well-intentioned or not, to 
disclose conditions of equipment, heating, lighting, cleanliness 
and sanitation that are so bad as to verge on the scandalous. On 
the other hand, when such allegations are made, if they are 
unfounded, they should be met by a prompt denial and explana¬ 
tion on the part of the district superintendent in responsible 
charge. Should the efforts and recommendations of the district 
superintendent fail to receive proper recognition on the part of 
any higher official, whether he be the Division Superintendent, 
the Superintendent of Buildings, the Superintendent of Schools, 
or a member of the Board of Education, the record itself should 


33 



Effective Supervision 


be clear that the failure to remedy the condition complained of 
does not lie with the local supervising officer. 

The problem of effective supervision also demands your very 
careful consideration. 

The provision of the by-laws dealing with this matter reads as 
follows: 


“District Superintendents shall inspect and record semi-annually, 
in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Board 
of Superintendents, with proper supporting data, the service rendered 
by principals, assistants to principals, and other supervisors within 
their districts. District Superintendents shall examine the work of 
teachers for report as to licenses, permanent appointment at the 
close of the probationary period, salary increases as provided for 
by these by-laws, and in case of appeals from ratings given prin¬ 
cipals or other supervisors. They shall also for purpose of report, 
examine the work of teachers ^r supervisors within their respective 
districts who were rated unsatisfactory during the term immedi¬ 
ately preceding. District Superintendents may also examine, for 
purposes of report, the work of teachers or supervisors who have 
received a satisfactory rating during the preceding term. No certifi¬ 
cation of unsatisfactory service made by district superintendents 
shall be accepted and filed as an official record unless supplemented 
by proper data showing that the said certification is based upon 
inspection of work during the current term, consultation with and 
notice to the person rated.” 

The general intent of this provision is self-evident. The chief 
concern of all supervisors should be to develop the latent abilities 
of those supervised, by intelligent, helpful, constructive criticism 
which will make the teacher or other subordinate reflectively 
critical of her scholarship, her teaching skill, and her effectiveness 
in securing the desired results, disciplinary and instructional in 
the pupils taught. 

It is needless for me to state that criticism to be of any value 
must not only be valid but must reach the organization or the 
individual that the criticism is intended to enlighten or improve. 
Yet this primary condition has not been fulfilled during the past 
year. Reports on schools, public and corporate, reports on prin- 


34 



Effective Supervision 


cipals, assistants, and teachers, have not been made so as to 
enable the schools or persons affected to know of the merits or 
defects noted. Of what does it avail to file such data in a Super¬ 
intendent’s office, or in the archives of a Record Division if the 
said information, in some duplicated form, does not eventually 
reach the institution or the person in whom the reform or im¬ 
provement is to be affected. Principals must filetluplicate ratings 
with the teachers concerned, and district superintendents and 
other supervising officers must file duplicate copies of ratings 
with principals, assistants, teachers, and other subordinates whom 
they are assigned to rate. Moreover, reports on conditions in 
schools filed by district superintendents at the close of the school 
year, must be made in duplicate, and one copy filed with the 
principal or other person in responsible charge. In short, the 
rule of procedure with which I wish to have you comply, is that 
all formal routine reports intended to rate or evaluate services 
or conditions must be made in multiple form, and a copy filed 
with the organization or person that presumably should receive 
the benefit of the evaluation or criticism made. 

The problem of proper management might be made the basis 
of discussion of many interesting topics, but I shall refer to but 
one,—truancy. 

The problem of truancy merits your very careful consider¬ 
ation. It appears to me that the creation of the Bureau of At¬ 
tendance has led many principals and teachers to assume that 
the responsibility for maintaining the highest possible percentage 
of attendance lies with the attendance officer rather than with 
the teacher in official charge of the class. , 

The figures as of June last, showing by divisions the number 
of children awaiting commitment to truant school together with 
the number actually committed, and also those either on proba¬ 
tion or parole, revealed the disturbing fact that although our 
parental and truant schools were crowded to their full capacity, 
there were still pending 513 unexecuted commitments. 


35 



Effective Supervision 


These figures are indicative of a serious condition to which 
you, as district superintendents, should give most careful con¬ 
sideration. I will concede that, during the past year, there were 
many factors that tended to produce the condition under dis¬ 
cussion. 

The influenza epidemic, which meant the absence of thousands 
of teachers and tens of thousands of pupils, the inadequate sup¬ 
ply of teachers, due to low salaries, which meant unsupervised 
classes long after the epidemic had subsided, the existence of 
over-large school organizations, and especially the existence of 
such schools organized on the duplicate school basis, the inter¬ 
ruption of routine work, due to innumerable war activities, all 
have tended to make the disciplinary problem in our schools 
more difficult than it has been in the past. However, a fatuous 
reliance on the efforts of a limited number of energetic attend¬ 
ance officers has never proved and never will prove to be a 
sufficient substitute for the interesting, well-planned classroom 
work, closely supervised attendance records, keen sense of per¬ 
sonal responsibility on the part of the principal and the teacher, 
and the innumerable incentives to good attendance that are always 
characteristic of good classroom management and progressive 
school administration. I therefore urgently recommend that 
you regard truancy as a problem worthy of your serious study, 
in the hope that you will, through your skill and determination, 
eliminate all but the exceptional factors. I am heartily in favor 
of local probationary schools, and shall do everything in my 
power to extend such schools throughout the city, in relation to 
the needs of the school population, but I believe that the estab¬ 
lishment of such schools will not lessen the responsibility of every 
superintendent, principal, and teacher to make sure that the life 
of the child in the classroom is sufficiently attractive to enable 
him to live there as a normal, joyous, happy individual under 
skilful supervision. 

During the past year, notable progress was made in the de¬ 
velopment and extension of a system of Intermediate or Junior 


36 



Effective Supervision 


High Schools. At the present time, there are 29 schools that are 
intermediate schools or contain intermediate departments. 

It is not necessary to state in detail the advantages of this 
type of school organization. You realize their advantages from 
the point of view of a better articulation between the high schools 
and the elementary schools, a more economical use of the seating 
accommodations in the 7th and 8th year classes, the opportunities 
afforded for differentiation of the courses of study and fo*- 
better form of discipline and school life for adolescent pupils, 
the relief of congestion in the high schools, and the saving in time 
and money by having the 9th year pupils instructed in a “neigh¬ 
borhood high school.” 

As a result of these and other advantages, the intermediate 
schools are no longer in an experimental stage. They are an 
integral part of our school system. 

During the coming year, the number of intermediate schools 
will be increased and careful attention will be given to the char¬ 
acter of the work being done in them. 

You can render valuable assistance by making a careful 
survey of your district to determine the best locations for the 
establishment of intermediate schools. Although surveys will 
also be made by the Superintendent in charge, you should make 
recommendations for the establishment of these schools without 
waiting for requests. In case your survey shows that Inter- 
mediate Schools can best be organized by including a group of 
schools from different districts, the district lines should not be 
permitted to stand in the way of the organization of these 
schools. 

You can also assist by carefully inspecting the work of Inter¬ 
mediate Schools. These schools are as much under your control 
now, as they were before they became intermediate schools. 
Copies of the results of your inspections should be sent from time 
to time to the division of Intermediate Schools. 


37 




Effective Supervision 


An important phase of the work of intermediate schools is 
found in the Rapid Advancement Classes which are designed to 
permit pupils to do three years of work in two years. Every 
term principals of regular elementary schools are requested to 
distribute to their bright pupils, circulars of information in ref¬ 
erence to schools having these Rapid Advancement Courses. 
Principals should encourage the bright pupils to attend these 
schools. 

You can assist in this phase of the work by seeing to it that 
the circulars are distributed promptly, and that a fair percentage 
of the bright pupils of the schools of your districts attend the 
rapid advancement 'classes. 

As, in the last analysis, our educational work culminates in 
the teaching process, I cannot resist the temptation again to urge 
you to give your attention to certain matters to some of which 
I directed your attention in my last annual address. I stated 
that it was highly desirable that you attend to such matters of 
methodology as, “self-checking in arithmetic, the desirability of 
insuring to every child a fairly rapid, legible style of penman¬ 
ship and a mastery of the minimum spelling vocabulary proved to 
be the basis of ordinary business and social correspondence, the 
distinction to be observed in the reading process between oral 
rendition and thought getting, the development of clear-cut speech 
through ample exercises in the classroom, and the necessity of 
treating history and geography as closely related subjects signifi¬ 
cant in our present day life.” 

Permit me to supplement the foregoing by re-stating, in part, 
certain suggestions that I recently made to that admirable organ¬ 
ization, The Brooklyn Teachers’ Association. 

I think that the war has very clearly proved the preeminent 
value of ideals as contrasted with narrow, technical efficiency. 
Therefore, in all our educational practice, we should not lose the 
pupil in the subject-matter. Our aim should be the fashioning 
of children so that, irrespective of their limitations as regards 
factual knowledge, they will be, in years to come, vigorous, 


38 




Effective Supervision 


courageous, honest, clear-spoken men and women possessed of 
American ideals. 

In a democracy like ours, in which great issues are deter¬ 
mined in the forum of public discussion, the gift of concise, clear- 
cut, graphic expression, oral and written, is more valuable and 
potent in the decision of great issues than the keen blade of 
the warrior. Therefore, language instruction is of paramount 
importance throughout the grades of the elementary and the 
high school. 

Training in oral English is especially important. There 
should be afforded abundant opportunity for daily oral expres¬ 
sion on the part of all pupils in all grades. Inhibition and 
repression leading to silence will never develop fluent speech. 
Practice, under supervision, is the basis of skill in this, as in all 
other phases of classroom work. 

Mere expression is not enough. Oral expression should be 
not only concise and coherent, but, above all, should be char¬ 
acterized by clear-cut enunciation and grammatical correctness. 
I would therefore suggest that instruction in phonics be not 
limited, as it sometimes is, to the first three years, but that there 
be through the entire curriculum a definite program of instruc¬ 
tion in phonics based upon the typical errors of enunciation and 
pronunciation found in the pupil’s daily speech. 

The same general principle applies to instruction in technical 
grammar. Our misplaced reliance, in the upper grades, upon 
instruction based on a pedantic Latin nomenclature and numer¬ 
ous difficult rules of syntax intended to insure grammatical 
speech, leads to very unsatisfactory results. Emphasis on correct 
speech through all the grades, based on an inductive study of the 
child’s daily errors in oral speech and written composition, must 
ever be our chief reliance. When the problem is so conceived, the 
rationalization of the pupil’s daily practice in correct speech 
through the study of technical grammar in the higher grades is a 
most desirable and profitable procedure, but the conjugations, 
parsings, and comparisons, and the over-loaded terminology of 


39 



Effective Supervision 


the average technical grammar must never be regarded as ends 
in themselves, nor as unfailing substitutes for habits of correct 
speech. 

I think also that geography should receive more attention 
than it has hitherto received, in order that all pupils may have 
a fairly wide basis for understanding the world relationships 
into which we have been thrust, and in order, also, that they 
may have the broad sympathies for foreign folk that must be 
predicated as the basis of a league of nations, or its equivalent. 

There must be changed emphasis so as to focalize the atten¬ 
tion of the pupils at all times upon the geographical facts and 
relationships concerning the countries with which we have inti¬ 
mate commercial and political connection. A pedantic knowl¬ 
edge of unrelated data covering the world as a whole is no 
substitute for knowledge that can be made to function daily in 
terms of current newspapers and magazines. 

Courses of study, while of great value in outlining and in¬ 
suring a definite progression of work, can never be adequate 
substitutes for the wise discretion of the well-informed teacher 
who aims to nourish the wholesome interest of pupils, the vast 
majority of whom regard the daily press to be fully as interest¬ 
ing and as vital as the outgrown texts which we sometimes pro¬ 
vide. 

The key-note of our historical study should be an intelligent 
interpretation of history in the making” that characterizes the 
world’s happenings day by day. All history of the' past, whether 
it be the wars in which this country has engaged, the adoption 
of the Constitution, and the various amendments, or the develop¬ 
ment of transportation systems, should be interpreted with refer¬ 
ence to present day ideals and issues. So-called cultural knowl¬ 
edge of a remote past that has little or no significance with 
reference to an urgent present is of very little value indeed, and 
should be displaced by the discussion of topics that are fraught 
with meaning in relation to present day problems. 


40 




Effective Supervision 


Although the history tests conducted in June were admirable 
in content and extent, the results obtained in some schools would 
indicate that, despite our efforts to enliven historical instruction 
in the grades through the preparation of syllabi dealing with 
the World War, many teachers still believe that adherence to 
the course of study written many years ago was a sufficient com¬ 
pliance with the demand that the pupils be kept alive to the 
events of the most significant epoch through which the world has 
ever lived. 

As the fall term marks the attainment of a victorious peace, 
and also the three hundredth anniversary of the establishment 
of a democratic government in this country, the interesting sug¬ 
gestion has been made that suitable studies be emphasized and 
celebrations be held during the fall term, to culminate about 
Thanksgiving Day. 

It. has been suggested that the commemoration of these mem¬ 
orable events take the two-fold form of appropriate exercises, 
such as dramatizations, pageants, cantatas, and patriotic con¬ 
certs in all grades of all schools; and also, in the upper grades of 
the elementary school and in all grades of the high school, of 
an intensive study of the development and significance of our 
form of democratic government, as well as contrasted political 
types. 

The proposition to celebrate “America’s Making” appeals to 
me very strongly because I think it is absolutely necessary for 
the welfare of this country that we engage in a spirited, intensive 
patriotic propaganda in our schools, to impress upon our pupils 
not only the benefits they enjoy under our present form of gov¬ 
ernment, but also the great labor and high cost that have been 
paid for our present institutions. Moreover, as an antidote to 
radical revolutionary schemes for social improvement, the pupils 
should be taught the legitimate methods that are available for 
the modification of our government, in order that it may be re¬ 
sponsive to the will of the majority. To the extent that we 
emphasize these thoughts by carefully formulated book study, 


41 



Effective Supervision 


and to the extent that we give picturesque and striking repre¬ 
sentations of stirring historical events related to such matters, I 
think we will not only attain these desired aims, but we will 
crystallize much of our historical work around interesting and 
dramatic themes. 

In order that due consideration may be given this ambitious 
program, Associate Superintendents, Messrs. McAndrew, O’Shea, 
Meleney, Straubenmuller, and Tildsley, have been designated as 
an executive committee to enlist the valuable cooperation of dis¬ 
trict superintendents and such other persons as may be needed, 
and I am informed that plans are well under way. Feeling as¬ 
sured that you agree with me that the project is well worth 
while, I confidently expect that your united cooperation will 
make the term’s work a splendid success. 

Permit me, in conclusion, to extend to all members of the 
administrative staff my heartiest appreciation of the exceptional 
service rendered during the past year under the most adverse cir¬ 
cumstances. The schools rendered excellent service, not only by 
supporting the numerous patriotic drives, but, above all, by 
maintaining unsullied in the minds of our children those ideals 
of patriotism that have always been the richest contributions 
made by our teaching service. More than ever before, the 
teachers of our schools are the guardians of those ideals and 
traditions which constitute Americanism. Only the presence of 
well-trained patriotic men and women in the classroom will serve 
to counteract the sinister radicalism" which tends to sap and 
undermine our political and social institutions. The dangers to 
which our national life is exposed, through the contamination of 
alien revolutionary ideals, measure the exceptional opportunities, 
and also obligations of the members of the teaching profession. 

It is incumbent upon all of us to exert such an influence, not 
only in our respective spheres of work, but also in the com¬ 
munity at large, as will richly compensate our city for its vast ex¬ 
penditures for educational service. We should exercise our 
utmost abilities to improve the service and to insure the continu- 


£ A 42 




Effective Supervision 


ing cooperation of the public on the basis of an interested and 
sympathetic understanding of our difficult problems. The 
prospective salary adjustments which will insure a wage suffi¬ 
cient to attract men and women of superior ability, should be an 
impelling motive on our part to make the school system of 
Greater New York second to none as the inspiring source of 
patriotism, citizenship, and social efficiency. 

In solemn responsibility and in dignity of duly vested power, 
we, the teachers of the city, stand second to no other professional 
groups, whether they be possessed of great wealth or political 
power. We are the guardians of the city’s richest treasures, 
the children of our city. As compared with these, its bales of 
merchandise, its golden crowned temples of commerce, are as 
mere tinsel. As guardian of our city’s greatest riches, we will 
not fail our trust. 


43 



DEMOCRATIZING SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, Sept. 1920 


T the National Citizens’ Conference on Educa¬ 
tion, held in Washington May last, which I had 
the honor to attend as the representative of 
our educational system, in response to a desig¬ 
nation by the Governor of our State, the Hon¬ 
orable Alfred E. Smith, I was deeply impressed 
by the discussions and the resolutions adapted relating to the 
democratization of school supervision. 

To refresh your memories, permit me to quote at length two 
of the resolutions: 

“a. The attitude of the board of education and of its chief 
executive officers toward the teaching staff should be such that, 
while preserving inviolate their authority to make final decisions, 
it nevertheless encourages to the utmost the exercise of both the 
individual and collective initiative of the teaching staff, for in no 
other way can systems of schools be prevented from becoming 
unduly autocratic and therefore static and ineffective. In few 
cities are educational authorities drawing heavily* enough upon the 
great reservoir of power stored up in the collective mind of the 
teaching body. Only through devising opportunity for a freer and 
fuller expression of opinion and of conviction on the part of its 
entire staff can this source of vitalizing and energizing power be 
tapped. 

b. While the importance of thus securing and utilizing the 
experience and wisdom of teachers in matters of school procedure 
is recognized, it must also be recognized that policies once decided 
upon by those in final authority should be loyally supported, for 
in no other way can that cooperative effort upon which success 
depends be secured.” 



44 







Democratizing School Administration 


Complete and whole-hearted acceptance of both the spirit 
and the letter of the foregoing resolutions by all members of the 
teaching and supervising staff, irrespective of rank, ought to be 
possible; but in order that we may give reflective consideration 
to at least some of the implications involved, I have thought it 
proper to devote this address to the development of certain points 
of view which, although more or less familiar, are related to this 
general problem. 

Certainly, the schools of a democracy ought to be adminis¬ 
tered on a democratic basis, but it is no doubt true that the 
acceptance of this principle has not led to the elimination of 
modes of administration smacking strongly of either autocracy 
on the one hand or Sovietism on the other. 

The administration of each school, so far as the statutes and 
by-laws will permit, should reflect the best judgment of the 
majority of the teachers of the school; but it should hardly be 
necessary to argue that a public school is not the personal prop¬ 
erty of either the principal or the teachers, and that the adminis¬ 
tration of the school should not be based upon crotchety notions 
or violent prejudices of either a principal or a limited group of 
teachers. I am frank to confess, however, that many of the 
controversies which the Superintendent of Schools has to pass 
upon would seem to indicate that such conditions do exist in no 
small number of cases. 

My ideal school principal is one who runs an open-door office, 
and who, by sympathetic supervision, invites and encourages 
teachers to voice their best judgment with reference to the con¬ 
duct of the school which the state and the municipality have 
entrusted to their care. Whether or not such cooperation is 
secured through'one device 6r another, such as is represented by 
a school council, grade conferences, or general conferences, is 
immaterial. Lest I be misunderstood, however, permit me to 
state that I am a very firm believer in definite responsibilities and 
centralized authority. The principal and not the individual 
teacher is the responsible executive in charge of the school. A 


45 



Democratizing School Administration 


laissez-faire policy that means headless, spineless, decentralized 
supervision may temporarily satisfy radical minds, but is certain 
to lead to disaster. 

To the extent that teachers have a real voice in the adminis¬ 
tration of the school, so that despite rigid conditions imposed 
by equipment, size of classes, license requirements, and other 
factors not easily controlled, the school, nevertheless, repre¬ 
sents the working ideal of the majority as to what is best under 
existing conditions, the school is a model school, whether it be 
part of a teachers’ training school, a school on Washington 
Heights, or a school in the heart of a lowly ghetto. I will not 
pause to particularize numerous conditions connected with school 
administration that have always been the basis of unrest and 
dissatisfaction in the teaching ranks. Let it suffice to say that, in 
my opinion, ambiguous ratings used only to block advancement, 
secret reports to supervising officials and to the Board of Ex¬ 
aminers that have been used with all the effectiveness and in¬ 
justice of a lettre de cachet, and petty tyranny based on pride of 
rank and lack of confidence in one’s ability freely and frankly 
to discuss school conditions, all have no place in a democratic 
school system. 

Another channel of expression by which teachers may 
participate in school administration in a very real way, is the 
professional teacher organization and the teachers’ council, such 
as we are familiar with in this city. None of us should be 
apologists for any existing conditions that fall short of the high 
standards set by the best intelligence of our profession. Honest 
criticism, uncolored by personal prejudice and untainted by 
dangerous radicalism, expressed in a dignified, impartial manner 
through proper channels should be the most potent influence for 
accelerating desirable changes. 

Whether or not existing organizations and the present 
teachers council serve as such media of expression and are 
effective in producing the desired reforms, is a matter for the 
teachers themselves to decide. As I have already stated in pub- 


46 



Democratizing School Administration 


lie discussion of these issues, I think it is pertinent to raise the 
question, whether or not a teachers’ council organized on a direct 
representation basis would lead all teachers in our system to 
take a keen interest in and to feel a personal responsibility for 
persons selected to constitute such a body. 

I am sure that frankness demands that I discuss teacher 
unionism, the very aim of which, according to its advocates, is 
teacher participation in school management and administration to 
a much greater degree than has ever been conceded. The advo¬ 
cates of trade unionism among teachers claim that unionism is 
the panacea for our ills, pedagogical and administrative. 

While fully cognizant of the splendid results obtained in 
education because of the enlightened and continuous support of 
the American Federation of Labor during the past thirty years 
in the country at large, and particularly in the State of New 
York, such knowledge and appreciation do not lead me to be¬ 
lieve that all of the reasons advanced in favor of teachers’ unions 
are valid, nor that the kind of unionism advocated by some within 
our system, calls for our commendation or support. Unionism 
in this city may easily fall into utter disrepute if it be held in 
the thrall of unwise or intemperate leadership, or if there be 
any basis, however slight, for the suspicion that the movement 
has its origin in contentiousness, radicalism, or disloyalty to the 
highest ideals, either of our profession or of our government. 

The answer to the question as to whether or not unionism is 
desirable must be found in the motives that prompt teachers to 
join any group, whether it be a union, a fraternity or a feder¬ 
ation. To the extent that such groupings are prompted primarily 
by selfish interests, and are based upon class appeal and concepts 
of economic and national life that run counter to those for which 
our government stands, such groups, whether you call them by 
one name or another, are vicious and undemocratic. We can¬ 
not ignore the bald fact that the schools of a democracy are the 
schools of the whole people, and not the schools of a particular 
class. Moreover, let me affirm with great emphasis that nothing 


47 




Democratizing School Administration 


can be more detrimental to our schools than the assumption that 
the classroom teachers constitute a laboring class, a sort of 
intellectual proletariat who differ both in kind and degree from 
supervisors and administrators who, by analogy, are classed as a 
sort of pedagogical capitalistic class, constituting the sworn op¬ 
pressors of the teachers with whom they live and labor day by 
day, and from whose ranks they are chosen. Any appeal to 
gross prejudice or to narrow class consciousness, whether labelled 
unionism or what not, contains the germs common to anarchism 
or bolshevism. A teachers’ union and the general union move¬ 
ment among teachers are just as good or-just as evil as teachers 
make them. It is therefore the bounden duty of teachers in such 
organizations to be active to prevent the use of such groups for 
personal, political, or professional exploitation, and, above all, to 
maintain and promote those fine conceptions of service to our 
children and to our city which have always distinguished the 
teaching profession. 

No doubt it is an exaggeration to state that the principal 
determines the success or the failure of a school. Such an extreme 
statement ignores the fact that even a principal grossly inefficient 
cannot nullify the fine work of a group of competent teachers, 
but it is intended to suggest that over and above the results that 
are possible of accomplishment by a corps of hard-working but 
undirected teachers there is a wide margin of possible achieve¬ 
ment that is entirely dependent upon the inspiring and efficient 
leadership such as the superior principal can always supply. 

In the by-laws to be presented to the Board of Education for 
adoption the duties of a principal are defined in part as follows: 

“Subject to the supervision and direction of the District Super¬ 
intendent assigned, Principals shall be the responsible administrative 
and pedagogical heads of their respective schools, and during the 
regular school session shall be responsible for the instruction, direc¬ 
tion and control of all members of the supervising, teaching and 
janitorial staff constituting the organization of such schools.” 

“Principals shall establish and maintain the highest possible 
standards of supervision and teaching in their respective schools. 


48 



Democratizing School Administration 


They shall give special attention to the work of substitute teachers, 
inexperienced teachers, or teachers whose work has been recorded 
as unsatisfactory. They shall keep such cumulative records of 
assistance rendered as will show what opportunity and assistance 
such teachers have had to enable them to succeed. Principals shall 
keep an official record of all class inspections and examinations, 
conferences with teachers, and of such other matters as they may 
deem necessary. They shall require assistants to principals to keep 
similar records of their work. 

“At the close of each term, principals or other persons in charge 
of schools shall furnish the teachers and supervisors under their 
supervision with a written statement characterizing the work of 
such supervisors as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and shall transmit 
a copy of the same to their respective district superintendents and 
to the Superintendent of Schools. The certification of unsatisfactory 
work shall ibe accompanied by proper supporting data showing that 
the said certification is based upon due consideration of the earlier 
service record, frequent inspection of work during the term in which 
the rating is given, consultation with and due notice of the unsatis¬ 
factory character of the work, to the person so rated.” 

You will note that if the foregoing provisions define accu¬ 
rately the duties of a principal as the responsible administrative 
and pedagogical head of a school, such an official, even if so in¬ 
clined, will hardly be able to live a sedentary life of indolent ease 
because it is obligatory upon him to be the energized directing 
head of the school, constantly planning to assist his teachers in 
the light of the best professional thought and to mete out even- 
handed justice not on the basis of impulse or prejudice, but on 
the basis of assistance given and criticisms registered that are 
sufficient to satisfy any impartial critic. 

The chief function of a principal in a large school organiza¬ 
tion is not to scatter his energy by the promiscuous presentation 
of so-called model lessons, which frequently have little relation or 
significance to the problems that perplex the inexperienced 
teacher, nor to devote himself to the personal performance of 
petty details that are properly the work of a subordinate super¬ 
visor or teacher, but rather to plan for the improvement of the 
school as a whole, and especially to effect an improvement in 


49 



Democratizing School Administration 


those subjects and activities that are below par, and to help those 
teachers, whose inexperience or lack of ability makes it imperative 
that special assistance be given. It may be worth while, in a 
spirit of paradox, to state that the chief concern of the principal 
should be to assist the best rather than the weakest teacher. I 
phrase the statement that way only to indicate that the best 
pacemakers in each grade able to assimilate suggestions as to 
methodology and management, relieve the principal of the neces¬ 
sity of giving model lessons, provided that through a system of 
inter-class visitation the less competent teacher is able to observe 
her more experienced colleague working under the same exacting 
conditions that she, too, must face in her daily routine. 

No amount of technical skill on the part of the principal or 
of his assistants will suffice if it be not supplemented by a spirit 
of sympathetic cooperation, or if the relations of the principal 
and those supervised are not characterized by a spirit of candor 
and honest dealing that renders impossible the making of ad¬ 
verse ratings or reports affecting a teacher’s status concerning 
which the teacher is not fully informed. I am frank to say that 
in the near future 'I intend to issue formal instructions to all 
principals to the effect that no report with reference to a teacher’s 
status or service shall be forwarded to any examining board or 
other agency unless a duplicate of the same has been filed with 
the teacher affected, and unless the report bears a statement by 
the person responsible for the same to the effect that a duplicate 
copy has been filed with the teacher or person concerned. 

While no one is more willing than I am to ..eliminate, by the 
discontinuance of license or the preferment of charges, the 
teacher or supervisor who because of diseased mentality, incom¬ 
petency, indifference, or other basic unfitness, denies to our chil¬ 
dren the education to which they are justly entitled, and I mav 
say by way of parenthesis that the performance of such dis¬ 
agreeable tasks is often accomplished in the face of great pressure 
and many obstacles, I am more than zealous to protect from 
injustice those whose ability and service entitle them to advance¬ 
ment or increased compensation. 


50 


i lA 



Democratizing School Administration 


The last time I had the privilege of addressing you I dwelt 
at some length upon my conception of the duties of a district 
superintendent, and I will ask your indulgence while I re-state 
some of the matters then emphasized: 

“The by-laws indicate, in broad general terms, the functions that 
should be characteristic of the best type of superintendent. ‘He 
shall study the needs of the districts, and shall be responsible for 
the efficient conduct of the schools as a whole, with reference to 
the accommodation of pupils, the grading of pupils, the transfer 
of pupils, the adjustment of the course of study to local needs, and 
such other matters as are necessary for the efficient and economical 
administration of the schools.’ 

“It would indeed be unfortunate if the controlling conception 
of the functions of the District Superintendent were that of a 
meticulous examiner and alphabetical rater of teachers, irrespective 
of the teacher’s range of experience or degree of skill. It is per¬ 
fectly conceivable that a superintendent may spend many years in 
such laborious work, without ever glimpsing the larger problems 
which the work of the district may present. Therefore, it has been 
thought proper to make an explicit statement in the by-laws of the 
larger aspects of work which should constitute the ever present 
problems of the progressive type of superintendent, and which not 
only measure the extent of his responsibilities, but also the greatness 
of his achievements. 

“The chief concern of all supervisors should »be to develop the 
latent abilities of those supervised, by intelligent, helpful, construc¬ 
tive criticism which will make the teacher or other subordinate 
reflectively critical of her scholarship, her teaching skill, and her 
effectiveness in securing the desired results, disciplinary and instruc¬ 
tional, in the pupils taught. 

“It is needless for me to state that criticism to be of any value 
must not only be valid but must reach the organization or the 
individual that the criticism is intended to enlighten or improve. 
Yet this primary condition has not always been fulfilled. Reports 
on schools, public and corporate, reports on principals, assistants, 
and teachers, have not been made so as to enable the schools or 
persons affected to know of the merits or defects noted. Of what 
does it avail to file such data in a Superintendent’s office, or in the 
archives of a Record Division if the said information, in some 
duplicated form, does not eventually reach the institution or the 
person in whom the reform or improvement is to be effected. Prin- 


51 




Democratizing School Administration 


cipals must file duplicate ratings with the teachers concerned, and 
district superintendents and other supervising officers must file 
duplicate copies of ratings with principals, assistants, teachers, and 
other subordinates whom they are assigned to rate. Moreover, 
reports on conditions in schools, filed by district superintendents at 
the close of the school year, must be made in duplicate, and one 
copy filed with the principal or other person in responsible charge. 
In short, the rule of procedure with which I wish to have you com¬ 
ply, is that all formal routine reports intended to rate or evaluate 
services or conditions must be made in multiple form, and a copy 
filed with the organization or person that presumably should re¬ 
ceive the (benefit of the evaluation or criticism made.” 

Permit me to present certain additional considerations. 

You appreciate, as well as I, the tremendous magnitude of our 
school system. Perhaps I need not remind you that our total 
school population is equal to the combined school population of 
Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis. The 
supervision of such a vast army by a limited group of district 
superintendents means that each of you must supervise many 
thousand pupils and several hundred teachers. Therefore, in 
the performance of such duties one must be careful lest he lose 
his sense of perspective and dissipate his energy in a multitude 
of details, of little ultimate value. 

Our primary object in limiting the number of ratings to be 
given to teachers was to relieve you of the necessity of doing 
a great amount of arduous work, the results of which did not 
justify the expenditure of energy involved. What, then, is to be 
done with the time and energy thus freed? They should be de¬ 
voted to the study of each school as a unit, with the object of 
discovering its characteristic problems, testing the value of plans 
devised by the principal to meet the same, and, in the spirit of an 
expert consultant, advising the principal wherein he can improve 
the plans in operation or in contemplation. In other words, the 
primary point of contact, advice, and control should be the prin¬ 
cipal rather than the teacher. I need not specify in detail the 
many problems of school administration, such as the proper dis¬ 
tribution of teaching strength in the grades, the scientific classi- 


52 




Democratizing School Administration 


fication and advancement of children, the selection and distribu¬ 
tion of didactic material, the measures that must be taken to 
insure the attendance, punctuality, and good behavior of pupils, 
the gradation and articulation of grade work, the standardization 
of methodology so as to insure at least a minimum uniformity 
of method and result, the development of the social life of the 
school in the interest of both teacher and pupil, the cooperation 
of worthy social agencies eager to cooperate with the school, the 
numerous means of developing an esprit de corps that always 
characterizes the best type of school, the solution of which is 
distinctly the task of the principal and concerning which he is 
entitled to look for guidance and direction to his immediate 
superior. Let the mental vision of the District Superintendent be 
inclusive not only of the best work accomplished not only in his 
own districts, but in neighboring cities dealing with similar prob¬ 
lems. Let him be the bearer to the principals of his schools of 
the wisdom born of his scholarly study and ripened experience. 

This general discussion would be incomplete were I not to 
refer briefly to the work of the division superintendent in rela¬ 
tion to his division. 

“The by-laws, as adopted, provide that Associate Superintendents 
with geographic assignments shall maintain offices in schools in 
their respective divisions, and shall keep therein definite office days 
and office hours. Moreover, Associate Superintendents must spend 
at least one day each week within such divisions, not only in order 
that they may be fully acquainted with the needs of the territory, 
but in order that they may come into frequent contact with the 
district superintendents, the principals and the teachers of the 
schools, and thereby gain an intimate insight into the needs of the 
division.” 

I cannot conceive how a division superintendent can effec¬ 
tively administer a division unless he maintains contact with 
district superintendents, directors and assistants, by frequent con¬ 
ferences in which there shall be a free interchange of views with 
reference to the problems in the various districts or activities 
represented. I would strongly urge that the division superin- 


53 



Democratizing School Administration 


tendent meet his subordinates in monthly conferences in order 
that as the head of the division he may not only be fully ac¬ 
quainted with the problems which the district superintendents 
and directors deem worthy of discussion, but in order that they, 
too, may be familiar with the plans of the division superintendent, 
and also secure the benefit of his judgment and experience. 
Every budget hearing reveals the absolute need of a more inti¬ 
mate knowledge on the part of supervising officials of the field 
work on which the budget is predicated. While the work of a 
division superintendent as a member of the Board of Superin¬ 
tendents is very engrossing, it is very desirable that he let no 
paper barrage prevent him from going over the top to search and 
explore the furthermost areas of his geographic or special assign¬ 
ment. Only by constant conference and personal investigation 
can he have that richness of knowledge which is the basis of 
intelligent and effective administration. 

Although an instinctive modesty makes it difficult for me to 
discuss the functions of the Superintendent of Schools, perhaps 
it would be well for me to do so very briefly to clear up certain 
misconceptions that appear to exist in some quarters. 

Under the State Education Law, the Superintendent of 
Schools is the Chief Executive Officer of the Board of Education 
and of the educational system, and has a seat in the Board of 
Education and the right to speak on all matters before the Board, 
but not to vote. He is not a member of the Board of Examiners, 
nor the Chairman of the said Board, as was the former Super¬ 
intendent of Schools. It is the intention of the law that the 
Board of Education shall exercise its power of management and 
control by duly declared enactments and directions, and that the 
Superintendent shall execute and administer in accordance there¬ 
with, all the affairs falling within the management and control of 
the Board. As the Chief Executive Officer, he must administer, 
supervise, and direct all the affairs, business or pedagogic, of 
the city school system, being held responsible to the Board for 
the results obtained, and being controlled by the acts of the 
Board in its determination of general policies and in its prescrip- 


54 




Democratizing School Administration 


tion of the methods and procedure for carrying such policies into 
effect. 

The Superintendent of Schools is also a member and the 
Chairman of the statutory body known as the Board of Super¬ 
intendents, attends the meetings of the said Board, participates 
in its discussions, and in the Board of Education, is its official 
representative. 

As the representative head of the school system, it is also the 
bounden duty of the Superintendent of Schools to confer and 
advise with any member of the teaching, supervising or employee 
staff who desires to confer with him, and also to meet in con¬ 
ference citizens or civic organizations interested in school 
problems. 

The mere enumeration of the foregoing indicates clearly that 
the Superintendent of Schools would strive unsuccessfully were 
he to attempt to duplicate the field work of such staff officers as 
Associate or District Superintendents. It would indeed be a 
pleasant change from the onerous duties of my office to spend 
considerable time in visiting schools, thus gaining inspiration and 
at times courage from intimate contact with our children, buoy¬ 
ant and happy in their youthful energy and free from the cares 
of adult life and position. But the Superintendent of Schools 
must inevitably rely upon the energy, the integrity and the judg¬ 
ment of those associated with him, and in so doing reap the 
advantages and also the disadvantages that such organization 
implies. 

My chief tasks during the two years I have been in office have 
been to insure the execution of the business of the Board in 
accordance with the spirit and also the letter of the statute; to 
organize the administration and supervision in a definite, orderly 
manner, so as to insure proper and adequate supervision; to 
secure adequate compensation for all teachers and employees, and 
to assure to all persons in the system, of whatever rank, a square 
deal in all matters of license, assignment, compensation and 
supervision. 


4. 



55 



Democratizing School Administration 


The successful solution of the many different problems inci¬ 
dent to the normal growth of our system, such as the erection 
of new buildings for elementary schools, the development of 
junior high, senior high and vocational schools, the organization 
of a continuation school system, the extension of local parental 
schools, demands the combined wisdom and action of so many 
persons and agencies that no Superintendent of Schools should 
claim credit therefor. I am hopeful, however, that through the 
earnest efforts of our entire staff the system has made material 
and spiritual progress during my brief incumbency, and God 
willing, I shall continue to administer the affairs of my high office 
in the light of the same ideals that have guided me in the past. 

Perhaps some may read into this general discourse a lack of 
confidence in the integrity or the efficiency of those who consti¬ 
tute the supervising and teaching staff; but even to harbor such a 
suspicion or to fail in an optimism that is the energizing power of 
our daily work would be unworthy of me. No one is more hope¬ 
ful or more confident of the progressive character of our work 
than I am. At no time during my thirty-seven years of service 
in the public schools have the times and conditions been more 
favorable to progress. Although our physical equipment is in¬ 
adequate and constitutes a serious drag upon our best efforts, 
the soul of the school is the teacher, and the salary adjustments 
that recent legislation made possible, have restored teaching in 
this city to the rank of a profession, and insured a type of service 
unexcelled by that found in any other educational system. The 
revelations of a period of war and reconstruction have given us a 
new insight into the dramatic importance of the teacher’s work, 
and I am sure that the confidence of an appreciative and generous 
public in the intelligence and efficiency of our schools is more 
than deserved. We would be derelict in our fondest obligations 
however, if we did not, by advice and counsel, aim to secure, 
through mutual helpfulness and democratized administration, 
solidarity within our ranks and a lofty conception of our obli¬ 
gations, without which we cannot render the high type of service 
which the welfare of the State imperatively demands. 


56 



ECONOMY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, Sept., 1921 


HILE the rapid development of the City of New 
York, with a population of approximately 
6,000,000 people distributed over an area of 
316 square miles, with a school population of 
909,000 pupils, equal to the aggregate school 
population of Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, 
Chicago, and St. Louis, has thrown into prominent relief the 
educational service as the most vital agency to the support of 
which the municipality is committed, the result has also been 
to place education, as regards financial support, in keen com¬ 
petition with the numerous other important civic activities 
and has made it necessary for the educational authorities to 
justify their demand for practically 25 cents of every dollar 
raised through the taxation of real and personal property. Al¬ 
though primarily a state function, education is none the less a 
grave municipal responsibility for the maintenance of which 
the Board of Education during the coming year will demand, 
exclusive of funds for sites and buildings financed through the 
issue of corporate stock, the vast sum of approximately $89,000,- 
000. A strong conviction as to the supreme value of educa¬ 
tional service to the community has been the basis of generous 
financial support. But lest there be an abuse of such confidence, 
I deem it my duty to urge you, to whom the administration of 
the schools is entrusted, to do all within your power to study 
wherein economies may be effected. 

In thus taking as my theme the matter of economy in school 
administration, I am influenced by the recent emphasis upon 



5 7 







Economy in School Administration 


thrift during the World War and also by the existing financial 
condition of our city, which has been made the subject of 
legislative investigation. I sincerely trust that you will con¬ 
sider the matter as one worthy of your continuing attention 
throughout the school year, because, in the last analysis, our 
practices, however excellent, are constantly in need of careful 
scrutiny and the rapidly mounting cost of education renders it 
advisable that our expenditures be closely analyzed not only by 
a consideration of the ends to be attained but also of the 
methods to be pursued. As every educational need casts an 
inseparable financial shadow, we must not only provide for the 
extension of educational service, but we must make every en¬ 
deavor, through the reorganization and the careful conduct of 
our work, to make certain that not one penny is demanded or 
expended in excess of the needs of the service.' In the use of 
our funds and in our requests for further financial support 
neither extravagance nor parsimony, but economy and efficiency 
should control. In the last analysis, our problem, as set by the 
demands of an intelligent community, is not to find out how 
cheaply the schools may be operated, but how wisely funds can 
be expended to insure the accomplishment of desirable ends. 

With your indulgence, therefore, I will briefly describe sev¬ 
eral phases of our work in which certain economies are appar¬ 
ently possible, leaving to the fulness of your daily experience 
and to your keen perception of professional duty, the task of 
filling in the details of the picture. 


Care in the Maintenance of School Plant and 
Equipment 

As the field officers of the Board of Education responsible 
for the supervision and control of our 600 schools, it is necessary 
that district superintendents, principals, and teachers feel a 
definite responsibility for the proper operation and economical 
maintenance of the school plant. To assume, for example, that 
such responsibility begins and ends with the Bureau of Plant 


58 



Economy in School Administration 


Operation and the custodial force, is to overlook entirely a 
responsibility that cannot be lifted from the shoulders of the 
teaching and supervising staff. The school equipment entrusted 
to our care must be protected with the same zeal that charac¬ 
terizes the public-spirited citizen protecting his private property. 
In a very real sense the schools are the property of the com¬ 
munity and the imperative obligation resting upon those in 
immediate relation to the schools is not only to exercise extreme 
personal vigilance to insure the proper upkeep of the plant and 
to impress upon the pupils their civic responsibilities, but above 
all to crystallize the good intentions of our children into habits 
of performance by the use of such devices or activities as will 
enlist their active cooperation. 

To illustrate by specific reference: 

During the past year it was necessary to direct your atten¬ 
tion to extensive window breakage in the schools, for which no 
one seemed to assume any particular responsibility. A per¬ 
functory report as to the amount of breakage seemed to be the 
measure of the responsibility acknowledged. It is hardly over¬ 
stating the case to say that such vandalism was a measure of 
the ineffectiveness of our efforts to imbue our pupils with proper 
habits and ideals of civic responsibility. Such failure, partial 
though it was, evidenced a certain neglectful attitude on the 
part of some, to realize that a pupil group trained to proper 
standards of behavior constitutes a cordon of good citizenship 
around each and every school in our city. 

I am happy to state that when principals were finally aroused 
to the seriousness of the situation, effective steps were taken 
to abate the nuisance, but experience teaches us that the future 
will no doubt present abundant opportunities for increased care 
and substantial reform. I cite the glass breakage a$ a problem 
typical of many relating not only to the physical structure of 
our buildings, but also to the valuable equipment placed in our 
schools. 


59 



Economy in School Administration 


As distinct from supplies, subject to daily consumption and 
replenishment, there is in our schools much valuable equip¬ 
ment, the cumulative cost of which is very great. To permit, 
through lack of effective supervision, the deterioration, the de¬ 
struction, or the theft of such equipment, whether it be a wand, 
a typewriting machine, a piece of machinery, or an interior 
telephone system, is a serious breach of duty and even in the 
absence of an official reprimand, a matter that should carry in 
its train a set determination to . prevent a repetition of the con¬ 
ditions that made such damage or loss possible. Accuracy of 
inventory, taken at frequent, stated intervals, continuous in¬ 
spection, the holding of all concerned to a strict accountability 
for damage done or loss sustained, will do much to better present 
conditions. 


Economy in Supplies 

The related matter of supplies as distinguished from equip¬ 
ment also calls for a brief discussion. We conduct a free school 
system, the pupils of which must not be called upon to bear the 
burden of the cost of supplies any more than they must bear 
the cost of instruction. Supplies adequate in amount and 
quality must be supplied by the department to every pupil; but 
the possibility of securing sufficient appropriations for such 
material is dependent upon the presentation of proper data to 
the financial authorities of the city. For example, because of 
certain existing conditions revealed at the last budget hearings, 
and properly made the subject of criticism, the directors of 
special branches, in particular, are instructed to keep careful 
records of the amount of money appropriated for their respec¬ 
tive activities and to make future budget requests on the basis of 
stock on hand in schools as of a given date, supplemented by 
the needs of the system for the ensuing year. 

I do not hesitate to say that an investigation made during 
the past year disclosed that some of our schools do not maintain 
a proper record of requisition and delivery made both as regards 


60 



Economy in School Administration 


the supply department and the individual teacher. The investi¬ 
gation proved that there were in use very primitive methods of 
making requisitions by classroom teachers. As a result of 
suggestions made early in the year, a number of division super¬ 
intendents have adopted for their respective divisions a uniform 
teacher requisition sheet which discloses at a glance the supplies 
available and also constitutes a cumulative record of requisitions 
made and stock delivered. As a substitute for either no record 
at all or the old-fashioned pass-book that lent itself neither to 
rapid inspection nor to a cumulative statement, the type of 
requisition sheet in question is so superior as to leave no valid 
excuse for delaying its general adoption. Economy in the 
ordering and distribution of supplies is practically impossible 
unless based upon such records. 

You are not unaware that it has been alleged that there has 
been extravagance in the purchase and the use of textbooks. I 
would like to be sure that there is no ground for such criticism. 
Order books only when they are absolutely needed and con¬ 
tinue them in use until they are no longer usable. Textbooks 
in use should be displaced gradually, thus preventing the return 
to the stockroom of books still fit for use. Moreover, books not 
in active use should be stored in a central supply closet, if such 
facility exists, lest through scattering and defective inventory 
there be accumulated books in excess of any real need. The 
justification of the purchase of a book is the continuing use 
to which the book it put. A stockroom cluttered up with numer¬ 
ous books which, although fit for use, are either not used or 
are used very infrequently, is an acknowledgment of wasteful 
management. 

As the life of a textbook is directly dependent upon the use 
to which it is subjected, due regard should be paid by all in a 
supervisory or teaching capacity to such apparently trivial mat¬ 
ters as the labeling, the covering, the strapping, and the weekly 
inspection of books not only in order that there may be no waste 
of such valuable material, but in order that our pupils may be 
impressed with a strong sense of their responsibility- for the 


61 



Economy in School Administration 


conservation of public property. Moreover, the replacement by 
pupils or by those in parental relationship, of all books lost or 
destroyed as a result of neglect or malicious mischief must be 
insisted upon. Textbooks which because of continuous wear are 
unfit for use, should be bundled and after due notice to the 
Superintendent of School Supplies, should be held subject to 
the call of his representative. 

Supplies of all kinds, general and special, adequate from the 
standpoint of variety, quality, and amount, must be provided if 
our teachers and pupils are to do effective work. But the correla¬ 
tive obligation upon all of us is to adopt such methods of school 
and classroom administration as will eliminate all possible waste. 

Waste Due to Crude Classification of Our Pupils 

Lest this discourse become too materialistic in tone, let me 
hasten to explain that I would have you regard the problem 
of waste from still another viewpoint, for even more important 
than the improvident use of supplies and equipment is the waste 
of the energy of the teacher and the pupil, due to our failure 
to individualize instructions because of the crude way in which 
we classify our pupils and measure their achievements. 

As I have elsewhere pointed out, perhaps the most char¬ 
acteristic advance in school administration during recent years 
has been the rejection of the assumption that all children are 
practically alike in physical and natural endowments and also 
that children with marked physical defects of sight, hearing, or 
limb have no place in the public schools. Today progressive 
school administration requires that an earnest effort be made to 
sort our children on a scientific basis, so that group instruction 
may still be consistent with recognition of the fact that as regards 
physical and mental traits, one group differs widely from an¬ 
other. Up to the present perhaps the greatest waste in education 
has been due to the crude classification of pupils. A vast amount 
of time, energy, and money is wasted whenever masses of chil¬ 
dren are grouped without regard to those physical and mental 
characteristics which individualize them and yet which, when 


62 



Economy in School Administration 


properly recognized and made the basis of grouping, permit 
class instruction to be carried on very profitably. 

If we are to eliminate waste, children of widely different 
abilities must not be grouped in unit classes. The child with 
defective vision, the stammerer, the cardiac and the mental 
defective must not be placed in severe scholastic competition 
with normal children. A violation of this principle of organiza¬ 
tion means as regards the children, not only extreme personal 
discouragement and the loss of self-esteem and self-confidence, 
but also considerable expense to the city because such children 
are repeaters in the grades. The proper classification and segre¬ 
gation of such children is therefore desirable, not only from an 
ethical but also from an economical standpoint. 

In addition to such efforts to make definite segregations of 
pupils with marked physical and mental defects, a striking 
feature of the administration of our most progressive elementary 
schools and high schools has been the application of tests that 
bespeak an earnest effort to group children on the basis of their 
ability in order that they may more fully derive the benefits of 
instruction and in order that their achievements may be measured 
by definite standards of attainment, instead of by the unstand¬ 
ardized judgment of the average teacher. Exceptional work 
in this regard has been done in many of our schools and my 
sincere hope is that a greater number of progressive elementary 
school and high school principals will carefully study the prob¬ 
lem. 

The average class organization in many of our schools is 
susceptible of great improvement. In many instances poor 
classification results in great waste. The poorly graded pupils 
make a fruitless effort to profit by instruction and the ineffective¬ 
ness of her work carries the conscientious teacher to the verge 
of nervous exhaustion. Not infrequently it would appear that 
the mode of organizing classes in a grade is exclusively a mathe¬ 
matical one of dividing the grade register by the average class 
register of forty, in total disregard of the distressing truth that 
the resulting class units are merely promiscuous groups of 


63 




Economy in School Administration 


pupils showing the widest variations of age and ability. An 
analysis made of many typical classes by means of the age 
progress sheet revealed the anticipated fact that pupils were 
grouped without due regard either to their mental or their 
chronological age. The facts recorded by the age progress sheet 
were apparently regarded merely as interesting data, to be filed 
with the Division of Reference and Research, rather than com¬ 
pelling reasons for reorganizing the classes in the grades. A 
careful study of the school history of exceptional pupils, as re¬ 
vealed by the age progress charts supplemented by simple stand¬ 
ardized tests will enable one to substitute a scientific class organ¬ 
ization for a crude, empirical one that is wasteful not only from 
the standpoint of discipline but also from the standpoint of in¬ 
struction. Furthermore, when so much standardized material 
is readily available, it is not too much to expect that principals 
and teachers will apply standards of achievement in spelling, 
penmanship, arithmetic, and reading, to determine whether or 
not pupils, classes and schools are up to the level of achievement 
we are entitled to demand. 

Only by the application of scientific standards of measure¬ 
ment as a substitute for the rule-of-thumb estimate of former 
days can we justify ourselves in claiming that teachers consti¬ 
tute a professional body keenly alert to the scientific develop¬ 
ments of the day. Let me extend my hearty congratulations to 
those district superintendents, principals,—elementary and high, 
and teachers who through careful study have equipped them¬ 
selves to be the leaders in this progressive movement. Permit 
me also to express the hope that their example will be an incen¬ 
tive to all to study their problems in the light of scientific 
research rather than in the light of musty traditions which, 
although wasteful to an extreme degree, are intolerant of the 
newer vision born of professional study. I beg you to discourage 
those antiquarians amongst us who are prone to group pupils 
according to the length of their legs and who advance pupils 
on the basis of so-called good behavior which is often synony¬ 
mous with immobility. In the last analysis, education must be 
wrought in terms of the individual child. Therefore, our group- 






Economy in School Administration 


ing of children must be such as to make certain that we are not 
inviting them to a Barmecide feast at which their hunger for 
learning remains unappeased. 

I speak in a spirit of optimism because I know of no school 
system in which more commendable advances have been made 
in such matters. Many of our elementary schools have achieved 
an enviable reputation for an intelligent application of such 
technique to the problem of grading; our junior high schools 
also are a notable illustration of a modification of the traditional 
classification of pupils that promises much by way of an en¬ 
riched curriculum for adolescent pupils, a longer schooling and 
vocational guidance. Last but not least our high schools have 
made remarkable progress in the application of technical methods 
to the classification of pupils. 

Let me then urge that you lend your hearty cooperation to 
the further development of such plans. Whether the adminis¬ 
trative scheme involves a grade, a school, or a district, no 
thought of. personal gain or comfort, no petty rivalry should be 
allowed to color one’s attitude and thereby obstruct the working 
out of such important problems. 

Economy in Classroom Instruction and Management 

Time will not permit nor do I consider it necessary to discuss 
waste in the conduct of the work of the classroom, as such 
matters are the continuing concern as well as the familiar 
knowledge of those in immediate supervision of the classroom 
teacher. But the problem of systematizing daily recurring phases 
of classroom routine so as to make them practically automatic, 
the problem of eliminating waste in the presentation of lessons, 
whether it be the faulty preparation of the teacher, neglect to 
make proper use of the texts in the hands of pupils, disregard 
of time limits, failure to utilize the services of pupils as critics 
and monitors, failure to place proper minimum and maximum 
limits to the use of drill, and above all, failure to maintain 
such class control as to make her efforts successful with the 


65 




Economy in School Administration 




minimum expenditure of time and energy, are matters of such 
primal importance as to call for your vigilant and sympathetic 
supervision. 

In this same connection it may not be amiss to remind you 
that inasmuch as practically 80 cents of every dollar expended 
for educational purposes is spent for salaries, it is imperative not 
only that classes be organized when justified by an average attend¬ 
ance, but that if we are to reduce costs to any perceptible degree, 
we should contract our school organization whenever possible 
at any time during the term. During the current school year, 
whenever you find that registers and attendance do not justify 
an authorized organization, apply for a reduction of the number 
of classes and teachers, even though such reorganization entails 
the loss of a valuable teacher or the modification of an existing 
program. 

Offset Waste By Gratuitous Service Nobly Rendered 

To offset the negative tone of some of the foregoing sugges¬ 
tions, let me suggest that in addition to taking such measures 
as may be necessary to eliminate waste, we all do our utmost to 
render service over and above that measured by the by-laws 
and regulations, that we render service without stint in a spirit 
of loyalty and gratitude. Too often, I fear, we listen to those 
within our ranks whose acidulous tongues and desire for per¬ 
sonal exploitation make them apostles of discontent and radical¬ 
ism, who challenge not only the amount and the kind of pro¬ 
fessional service which we should render, but who even scoff 
at the holy obligations which we owe to the state and to the 
nation. No doubt such parlous leaders are convinced that they 
are the salt of the earth and that wisdom will die with them. 
While it is true that their verbal bludgeons inflict little real 
damage, we should beware lest the public be misled into the 
belief that those engaged in educational work are incompetent, 
ungrateful, or pessimistic. We should bear in mind the fact 
that as a profession we now have a rank and dignity never before 
attained by those in the teaching service. Admission on the basis 


66 




Economy in School Administration 


of proved competency, adequate compensation for all ranks of 
the service, permanency of tenure except for the obviously 
unfit, supplemented by assured pension benefits, are features 
incident to our professional employment that entitle the com¬ 
munity to demand exceptional service of the teaching profes¬ 
sion. Slipshod performance of duty, quibbling as to the amount 
of service, questioning obedience to properly constituted author¬ 
ity, and, above all,—a characteristic of our weakest brethren— 
doubtful loyalty to our political institutions, are faults that call 
for hearty condemnation and should be not only an absolute 
bar to advancement, but in exceptional cases, the basis of dis¬ 
barment from the service. 

In terms of idealistic devotion to the common good, the 
teachers of our system have no peers. They exemplify in their 
daily lives the inspiration and the obligation which find expres¬ 
sion in the oath taken by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: 

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impartially 
discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me according 
to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, and that I will 
support and defend the Constitution of the United States against 
all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and 
allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without 
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will 
well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I 
am about to enter. So help me God.” 

With our minds and bodies refreshed and strengthened by 
a profitable vacation, let us return to our work determined to 
prevent waste not only in material things but also in spiritual 
matters and to offset any wastage due to lack of skillful admin¬ 
istration, by a generous enthusiasm and intensity of effort that 
will arouse the admiration of a critical public. Although I 
recall the sage advice of Poor Richard that “We may give advice 
but we cannot give conduct ?■ yet I am sure these poor sug¬ 
gestions of mine will stir up in your minds a host of fruitful 
resolutions, the carrying out of which will be the crowning glory 
of a prosperous school year. 


67 




FACING THE FACTS 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, Sept. 1922 


CONCEIVE it to be my duty and my privilege, 
as Superintendent of Schools, to convoke you 
at the close of your summer vacation, to discuss 
educational problems that I deem of great im¬ 
portance to the proper conduct of our school 
system. In so doing may I add, by way of 
greeting, that I trust your “days off'” have been both pleasant 
and profitable. To paraphrase Van Dyke’s charming essay, I 
hope your well earned vacation among the islands of repose has 
given you a steady hand, a clear mind, and a brave heart, to 
undertake your voyage along the stream of professional work. 
As you have already assumed the burden of your detailed duties, 
let me ask you to unbuckle the straps and put the pack aside, 
for a short time, to rest yourself by climbing a hill,—a rather 
steep one, I will admit,—in order to view the entire educational 
field and to gain thereby a certain perspective that may prove 
helpful in your respective assignments. 

My justification for asking you to accompany me to the rather . 
lofty heights of technical discussion is that we are morally bound, 
as men and women engaged in fashioning human nature, to test 
the results of our efforts by all approved means made available 
by present-day research. The education of our army of almost 
900,000 children is a tremendous task, involving an enormous 
outlay of money and human energy. While the results are often 
difficult to evaluate, and sometimes at apparent variance with 
the immediate demands of commerce, industry, or professional 
life, yet the great world war, both in its origin and in its results, 



68 









Facing the Facts 


proved conclusively that the moral vitality of a nation is more 
significant than any material prosperity and that such vitality is 
the energized product of an efficient educational system, working 
for the attainment of ideals, defensible in the eyes of man and of 
God. To the extent that we can definitely gauge the success or 
the failure of our efforts by substituting ascertainable facts for 
emotional impressions, we not only beget an increased confidence 
in our aims and a basis for the retention or the modification of 
present practices, but we also are better able to place before an 
interested and a generous public, more cogent arguments for the 
adequate financial support of our educational program. 

You recall, no doubt, that, in discussing Economy in School 
Administration, in my last annual address, I referred to the ele¬ 
ment of waste resulting from the crude classification and group¬ 
ing of our children. I said in part: 

“Today progressive school administration requires that an earnest 
effort be made to sort our children on a scientific basis, so that 
group instruction may still be consistent with recognition of the 
fact that as regards physical and mental traits, one group differs 
widely from another. Up to the present, perhaps the greatest waste 
in education has been due to the crude classification of pupils. A 
vast amount of time, energy, and money is wasted whenever masses 
of children are grouped without regard to those physical and 
mental characteristics which individualize them and yet which, when 
properly recognized and made the ibasis of grouping, permit class 
instruction to be carried on very profitably. 

“If we are to eliminate waste, children of widely different abil¬ 
ities must not be grouped in unit classes. The child with defective 
vision, the stammerer, the cardiac, and the mental defective must 
not be placed in severe scholastic competition with normal children. 
A violation of this principle of organization means, as regards the 
children, not only extreme personal discouragement and the loss 
of self-esteem and self-confidence, but also considerable expense to 
the city, because such children are repeaters in the grades. The 
proper classification and segregation of such children is therefore 
desirable, not only from an ethical but also from an economical 
standpoint. 

“The average class organization in many of our schools is sus¬ 
ceptible of great improvement. In many instances poor classifica- 


69 



Facing the Facts 


tion results in great waste. The poorly graded pupils make a 
fruitless effort to profit by instruction and the ineffectiveness of 
her work carries the conscientious teacher to the verge of nervous 
exhaustion. Not infrequently it would appear that the mode of 
organizing classes in a grade is exclusively a mathematical one of 
dividing the grade register by the average class register of forty, 
in total disregard of the distressing truth that the resulting class 
units are merely promiscuous groups of pupils showing the widest 
variations of age and ability. An analysis made of many typieal 
classes by means of the age progress sheet revealed the anticipated 
fact that pupils were grouped without due regard either to their 
mental or their chronological age. The facts recorded by the age 
progress sheet were apparently regarded merely as interesting data, 
to be filed with the Bureau of Reference, Research and Statistics, 
rather than compelling reasons for reorganizing the classes in the 
grades. A careful study of the school history of exceptional pupils, 
revealed |by the age progress charts supplemented by simple 
standardized tests will enable one to substitute a scientific class 
organization for a crude, empirical one that is wasteful not only 
from the standpoint of discipline but also from the standpoint of 
instruction. Furthermore, when so much standardized material is 
readily available, it is not too much to expect that principals and 
teachers will apply standards of achievement in spelling, penman¬ 
ship, arithmetic, and reading, to determine whether or not pupils, 
classes or schools are up to the level of achievement we are entitled 
to demand. 

“Only by the application of scientific standards of measurement 
as a substitute for the rule-of-thumb estimate of former days can 
we justify ourselves in claiming that teachers constitute a profes¬ 
sional body, keenly alert to the scientific developments of the day.” 

In order to reemphasize the importance of the foregoing 
viewpoint, which I consider of fundamental importance to the 
efficiency of the schools, let me present to you in some detail, the 
results of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Refer¬ 
ence, Research and Statistics during the past year, in which we 
attempted to measure present-day conditions in our schools, as 
revealed by the conventional measures of 

(a) rates of promotion 

(b) age of pupils 


70 



Facing the Facts 


(c) progress made by pupils 

(d) scholastic achievements of pupils. 

The facts I shall adduce will convince you that if our schools 
are to meet the needs of our children there must be continuous 
and, I may say, radical changes in our present methods of school 
administration. 

While the facts revealed by our study may be a source of 
discouragement to many of us who have labored zealously to 
promote the efficiency of the schools, I think*it may be stated 
without fear of contradiction that the conditions revealed do not 
compare unfavorably with those that may be found in other large 
school systems of the country. Perhaps the chief difference to 
be noted is that we are earnest in our attempt to discover con¬ 
ditions and we are willing to face the issues squarely, without 
quibbling or evasion. 

(a) RATES OF PROMOTION 

On the basis of our present grading and promotion plan of 
organization, by which unit classes of children of presumably 
uniform ability and attainments are advanced to higher grades 
at the close of the fall term ending in January, and at the close 
of the spring term ending in June, the percentage of promotions 
and correlatively the percentage of non-promotions or hold-overs, 
are taken as fair indices of the efficiency of a given school or 
a group of schools. The rate is correctly assumed to be a 
quantitative index of the success of the orgainzation in question. 

Thus, on June 30th last, of a grand total of approximately ' 
716,000 pupils in the regular elementary grades, 83,000 children 
failed of promotion. What results from such conditions? Pre¬ 
sumably, the pupils were denied promotion in order to insure 
their better training during the succeeding term and to preserve 
the homogeneity of the classes newly formed. But the converse 


71 



Facing the Facts 


of the picture is, from the standpoint of the pupil, discourage¬ 
ment and unfruitful repetition of at least part of the succeeding 
term’s work, and from the standpoint of the school organization, 
increase in “overageness,” early elimination, from the upper 
grades, increase in cost because of the greater number of years 
required to complete the course, and last, but not least, conges¬ 
tion in the grades. 

To illustrate in simple fashion the retardation and congestion 
that arise from prevailing rates of non-promotion, let me state 
that if we follow the school careers of one thousand typical 
children who entered school eight years ago, we find, applying the 
successive yearly rates of promotion, that at the close of 16 
terms, the phalanx of one thousand youngsters has lost its com¬ 
pactness and has become a group of stragglers, distributed 
through the grades as follows: 

Distribution of the original group of 1,000 pupils at the 
close of 16 school terms: 


Grade 

Pupils 

Graduates 

139 

8B 

260 

8A 

288 

7B 

185 

7A 

87 

6B 

30 

6A 

9 

5B 

2 


The degree of retardation, overageness, congestion, and ex¬ 
pense incident to such rate of progression will be illustrated as 
I develop my presentation. 

The wide variation in the percentage of promotions as of 
the term ending June 30, 1922, may be illustrated by quoting the 


72 



Facing the Facts 


figures with reference to ten school districts, five of which ranked 
high, and five of which ranked low in the total distribution: 


Percentage of Promotions by Districts 
June, 1922 


23rd 

High 

District 

92.3% 

Low 

8th District 79.1% 

21st 

tt 

88.1 

47th 

ft 

78.4 

19th 

it 

87.2 

29th 

tt 

79.9 

14th 

tt 

86. 

48th 

ft 

76.6 

36th 

« 

85. 

27th 

u 

72.3 


Another interesting distribution reveals the variation in the 
i*ates of promotion of different schools, exclusive of special 
schools such as the probationary, for the term ending June 30, 
1921. I will give the number of schools, citywide, in the five 
highest and in the five lowest percentage groups: 


Rate of 


No. of schools, 

promotion 

High Group 

all boroughs 

100—97% 


5 

96—93% 


18 

92—89% 


27 

88—85% 

Low Group 

93 

76-73% 


45 

72—69% 


16 

68—65% 


8 

64—61% 


4 

60—below 


8 


The average rate of promotion for the city was 88.6. 

I present these promotion statistics as one aspect of a general 
condition resulting from existing educational aims, administration 
and instruction. 


73 



Facing the Facts 


I know full well that no one in our schools will regard the 
presentation of these specific facts as a fiat that we are to main¬ 
tain a regimentation of children and advance them irrespective of 
their attainments. But I do present them as ones that give addi¬ 
tional reason for a careful study of the premises and also the 
methods involved in our present classification and instruction 
of children. Conservation of childhood may be effected through 
many agencies but through no other agency as effectively as 
through a properly administered school system. Let us assume 
an inquiring attitude towards the situation and ask ourselves, 
now and during the current school year, whether these differences 
in promotion rates are due to differences in standards of school 
administration, differences in the skill of the teaching staff, dif¬ 
ferences in standards of achievement, or differences in the 
abilities of the pupil group. In the interest of childhood, let 
us be unflagging in our effort to study and to solve the elements 
that enter into the problem and also let us be determined and 
fearless in eliminating from the schools the factors, human or 
otherwise, that produce these unsatisfactory results. Apart from 
the variation in the native capacity of pupils, to which I will pres¬ 
ently refer, let us beware lest unskillful teaching or crude, neg¬ 
ligent supervision of school or district operate to produce or to 
maintain a condition that means continuous wastage of municipal 
funds and human effort. 

(b) AGE OF PUPILS— 

A careful study was also made of the age distribution of 
approximately 733,000 pupils enrolled as of February, 1921. Al¬ 
though the facts disclosed were quite in accord with those re¬ 
vealed in similar investigations in this and in other school sys¬ 
tems, I shall take the liberty of discussing them briefly, in order 
to emphasize what appears to me to be their real significance. 

The age limits adopted as normal were 6-7^4 for the first 
year, and 13-14^4 for the eighth year. While it is true that the 
Compulsory Education Law does not make attendance at school 


74 



Facing the Facts 


mandatory until the age of seven, we found approximately 13,000 
pupils enrolled in the 1A grade less than six years of age. Of 
the total 1A register of approximately 47,000 pupils, 40,000 
were less than seven years of age. On the other hand, according 
to the official reports, to verify the accuracy of which every 
effort was made, the ages of the remainder of the 1A pupils 
ranged all the way up to eighteen years of age. 

Of the 29,000 pupils in 8B, 9,000 were younger than the 
normal age and 7,500 were of ages ranging from fourteen and 
one-half to eighteen and one-half years and over. 

The promiscuous distribution through the grades of children 
of all ages or of children of a given age can easily be illustrated. 
For example, among the 47,000 pupils in 1A, the ages ranged 
from less than five to eighteen; of the 29,000 pupils in 8B the 
ages ranged from ten to eighteen. On the other hand, on exam¬ 
ining the distribution of children of a given age, say the 40,000 
children twelve years of age, we found them in all grades from 
1A to 8B, the largest number being found in 6B. A range of 
ten years holds for each one of the grades. In short, pupils of all 
ages are found in almost all grades, and pupils of a given age are 
distributed through a wide span of grades. 

Assuming, grade by grade, the age limits indicated, and group¬ 
ing the pupils in the well recognized categories of underage, 
normal, and overage, we found that of 732,448 pupils on register, 
317,053, or 43.3%, were of normal age; 186,603, or 25.5%, were 
underage or one or more grades ahead of the grade to which 
their age entitled them; and 228,792, or 31.2%, were overage 
or were “laggards” to the extent of one or more grades. In 
other words, of every 100 pupils in the regular grades, 26 were 
underage, 43 were of normal age, and 31 were overage for their 
grades. Of the average pupils about 60% were overage one year 
or less; about 25% were overage one to two years; about 10% 
were overage two to three years; and about 5% were overage 
three years or more. 


75 



Facing the Facts 


One interesting and important phase of the statistics gathered 
was the wide variability among schools as regards the age dis¬ 
tribution of pupils. 

Thus, while in seven schools from 41% to 55% of the pupils 
were underage, on the other hand in sixteen schools less than 
10% of the pupils were underage. Again, while in two schools 
from 86 to 90% of the pupils were overage, in three schools 
less than 10%: were overage. In four schools the pupils of 
normal age ranged as high as 56-65% ; but in four schools the 
number of normal age ran as low as 1-6%. 

Is not this wide range of variability worthy of careful study? 

The information asked for and supplied made it possible to 
analyze the overageness into two factors of late entrance and 
slow progress or retardation. The results showed that of the 
213,227 overage pupils in the grade, 18.2% were late entrants; 
64.5%, were slow progress pupils; and 17.3% were pupils who 
combined late entrance and slow progress. In other words, in 
the great majority of cases of overage pupils, possibly about 
70% of such cases, slow progress through the grades is the 
cause of the overageness. 

What importance shall we attach to this type of data? What 
significance has it for us who are responsible for the efficient 
administration of the schools in the interest of children? While 
in my opinion certain fallacious conclusions have, been drawn 
from such data in the past, I think a study of such facts of 
variability of age in the elementary grades is of extreme import¬ 
ance. While the amount of overageness is in part a measure of 
the rate of pupils’ progress which, in turn, involves a study and 
discussion of other factors, such as classification of pupils, semi¬ 
annual promotions, uniformity of aim, course of study, and mode 
of instruction, the vital significance of such data is with refer¬ 
ence to the future, rather than the past, of the overage group. 
Overage is not synonymous with retardation but it is frequently 
an ominous prophesy of an incomplete education. Irrespective 
of their lack of success in the past, does not the overage of these 


76 



Facing the Facts 


213,227 pupils place probable limits on the amount of schooling 
they will be able to secure in the future, either in the elementary 
schools or in the continuation schools? 

When one recalls the fact that any pupil may leave school 
at the age of sixteen years, regardless of the grade he may have 
attained, and also that a pupil may leave school at the age of 
fifteen years, provided he has qualified for admission to the 7 A 
grade, one can readily foresee that the great majority of the 
overage pupils scattered promiscuously through the lower grades 
will leave school before receiving a full eight-year schooling. 
Thus, a study shows that of the 80,000 twelve-years-old pupils in 
the grades, 4,000 of them will be fifteen years or older when 
they reach the 7A grade and will find it possible to leave school. 
Indeed, many of them will attain the age of sixteen before they 
reach the 7A grade and some may drop out as low as the 5A 
grade. In other words, our study reveals the fact that thou¬ 
sands of our pupils have been and will be eliminated from our 
schools with only a fifth, sixth, or seventh year education. 

Can we, therefore, as professional men and women, view such 
overage statistics with complacency? Are we not in duty bound 
to ask ourselves whether or not we have scrutinized our aims and 
our procedure with sufficient care? Have we done sufficient in 
the matters of grouping and promoting our pupils, of develop¬ 
ing differentiated courses of study, of individualizing instruction 
to the extent necessary to make our schools a democratic institu¬ 
tion in which all pupils of all degrees and types of ability may 
secure an educational competency? 

(c) PROGRESS MADE BY PUPILS 

In order to analyze the element of progress as related to the 
ages of pupils in the grades, special data were obtained from the 
pupils’ record cards, showing not only the age of the pupil in 
relation to grade norms, but also the number of terms the pupil 
had spent in attaining the grade he was in at the time the census 
was taken. We anticipated that age alone did not measure either 


77 



Facing the Facts 


progress or retardation; we assumed that overage might be con¬ 
sistent with normal progress. We found we were justified in 
these assumptions but, in addition, the data showed that normal 
age does not always mean that a child has made normal progress 
and that underage does not always mean accelerated progress. 
It is obvious, therefore, that age grade statistics as a measure of 
the effectiveness of our work must be supplemented by progress 
statistics. 

The study revealed little to justify the traditional assumption 
that if we divide the elementary curriculum into approximately 
sixteen equal parts, called a term’s work, the average uniform 
ability of the great majority of our pupils will enable them to ad¬ 
vance or progress from term to term without appreciable loss. 

Of the 710,653 pupils on register in the regular grades on 
February 28th last, 85,938, or 12.1%, had made rapid progress; 
297,821, or 41.9%, had made normal progress, and 326,894, or 
46%, had made slow progress. Of the total enrollment, 

8.2% of all pupils were accelerated one term. 

2.5% of all pupils were accelerated two terms. 

0.8% of all pupils were accelerated three terms. 

0.3% of all pupils were accelerated four terms. 

0.3% of all pupils were five or more terms advanced. 

Moreover, 

20.4% of all pupils were retarded one term. 

10.8% of all pupils were retarded two terms. 

6.5% of all pupils were retarded three terms. 

3.7% of all pupils were retarded four terms. 

2.2% of all pupils were retarded five terms. 

2.3% of all pupils were retarded six or more terms. 

As one might anticipate from the foregoing, great variability 
in rates of progress exists among the children of a given grade. 
Thus, among the 30,000 children in 8B, admission to which 


78 




Facing the Facts 


should require fifteen terms’ work, of those who had made the 
most rapid progress, 


3 had been in school 

0 U It It it 

g tt tt tt tt 

tt tt tt tt 

112 “ “ “ “ 


6 terms 

7 “ 

8 “ 

9 “ 

10 “ 


but, at the other extreme, of those who were most retarded, 


380 had been in school 

tt It it tt 

53 “ “ “ 

24 ii ii ii ii 

4 u ii it it 


20 terms 

21 “ 

22 « 

23 “ 

24 “ 


The same variability is found in the grade distribution of a 
given group of pupils who have spent the same number of terms 
in school. Thus, taking the group of 18,000 who on February 
28th last were in their sixteenth term in school, we find them 
distributed from 2B to 10B, there being 


1 pupil in 2B 

2 pupils in 3A 

11 “ “ 3B 

48 “ “ 4A 

77 “ “ 4B 

and at the other extreme, 

4719 pupils in 8B 
998 “ “ 9A 

533 “ “ 9B 

12 “ “ 10A 

5 “ " 10B 

As we go upward through the grades, we find the number of 
retarded and also the number of accelerated pupils grow at the 
expense of the number of normal pupils. There is a decided de- 


79 



Facing the Facts 


crease in the number of retarded pupils after the 6B grade, due 
to the elimination of retarded pupils, which the law makes per¬ 
missible. 

The variation in the rates of progress in the different schools 
is striking. Thus, in ten elementary schools the percentage of 
slow progress ranges from 66% to 85%, while in sixteen schools 
it ranges from 1% to 30%. While fifteen schools range from 
25% to 50% in rapid progress, ninety schools have only from 
1% to 5% rapid progress. While forty schools range from 
50% to 60% normal progress, twenty-five schools range from 
1% to 25% normal progress, four of these schools have less than 
5% normal progress. 

A most interesting result of the study was the disclosure that 
the age grade status of a pupil bore no definite relationship to the 
progress he had made. Thus, briefly to epitomize the results, let 
me state that of every thousand pupils, 260 were underage, but of 
these underage pupils, 

83 had made rapid progress 
162 “ “ normal " 

15 “ “ slow 

Of 440 of the thousand who were of normal age 

23 had made rapid progress 
217 “ “ normal “ 

200 “ “ slow 

Of the 300 overage pupils, 

15 had made rapid progress 

40 “ “ normal “ 

245 “ “ slow 

In other words, incorrect assumptions are that all underage 
pupils have made rapid progress, inasmuch as twice as many 
made only normal progress as made rapid progress; that all 
pupils of normal age have normal progress, inasmuch as about 


80 



Facing the Facts 


as many made slow progress as made normal progress; that 
overage is synonymous with slow progress, when the truth of the 
matter is that some made either normal or rapid progress. 

Or, to put the matter in a different way, of 1,000 rapid 
progress pupils, 

684 are underage 
193 “ normal age 
123 “ overage 

Of 1,000 normal progress pupils, 

386 are underage 
519 “ normal age 
95 “ overage 

Of 1,000 slow progress pupils, 

33 are underage 
434 “ normal age 
533 ' c overage 

While various investigators, in discussing the causes of over¬ 
age and retardation, have assigned many interesting and no doubt 
valid causes, such as nationality, foreign birth, physical defects, 
late entrance, frequent transfers, part time, absence of teacher, 
inefficient teaching, absence of pupil, and overlarge classes, little 
stress has been laid upon variation from average mentality as a 
factor in retardation. 

A study was therefore made of this phase of the problem. 
The investigation was limited to about 900 pupils in twenty-two 
schools in the districts supervised by District Superintendent 
John E. Wade, with the cooperation of Miss Elizabeth E. Far¬ 
rell, Inspector of Ungraded Classes, and trained phychologists 
and post-graduate students from Teachers’ College. The investi¬ 
gation was confined to those pupils in the two school districts 
who showed a retardation of more than two years or four school 
terms. 


81 



Facing the Facts 


The results with reference to 810 pedagogically retarded 
pupils showed that 

434 or 53% were mentally underage 

167 or 20% were normal 

209 or 25% were overage mentally 

Of those, constituting one-half the group, who were mentally 
underage, 

263 were 1 year or less underage 
134 “ 1 to 2 years “ 

29 “ 2 to 3 “ “ 

6 “ 3 to 4 “ “ 

2 “ over 4 “ 

The same results were revealed by classification according to 
their intelligence quotients and also according to their educational 
quotients. 

In short, precisely half the group retarded two chronological 
terms were shown to lack the mental capacity to do the work of 
the grades in which they were enrolled. 

(d) SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF PUPILS— 

That the variations we find in our classes in the matter of age 
and progress is further exemplified in achievement tests in the 
subjects of the curriculum is now becoming a matter of familiar 
knowledge. We are deceiving ourselves if we defend our present 
crude grading scheme on the ground that we have class units 
which are homogeneous in respect to achievement or the mastery 
of subjects of the curriculum. 

Whether we test in arithmetic, in spelling, or in penmanship, 
there are disclosed such wide variations of ability within the 
class and the grade group as to make grade distinctions indefinite 
and nebulous, if not meaningless. Thus, to pass over the results 
of the Courtis investigation in arithmetic which disclosed wide 


82 



Facing the Facts 


overlapping of grades, so thaf some pupils of an intermediate 
grade, such as 6A, displayed ability equal to that of 8B pupils, 
while others were less proficient than the average 4B pupil, let 
me just refer to the results of certain investigations conducted 
by Director Nifenecker, of the Bureau of Reference, Research 
and Statistics. 

In a recent spelling test in grades 5A through 8B, given to 
5,260 pupils, while approximately 2% of the 749 pupils in 5A had 
the twenty-five words correct, about 5% of the pupils in the 
same grade had none or only one right. The same general result 
held for 5B and 6A. In grades 6B and 7A, totaling 1,400 pupils, 
while practically 20% had all right, approximately 7% of them 
had ten or less right. A comparison of the different grades 
shows extreme variability. Thus, of the 749 pupils in 5A, 33% 
of the 5A pupils exceeded the 5B average, 21% exceeded the 6A 
average, 14% the 6B average, 10% the 7A average, 7% the 7B 
average, 3% the 8A average, and 3% the 8B average. On the 
other hand, of the 475 pupils in the 8B grades, 


30% fell below the 8A 

average 

13% “ 

tt 

“ 7B 

« 

9% “ 

tt 

“ 7A 

« 

6% “ 

tt 

“ 6B 

« 

3% “ 

tt 

“ 6A 

« 

1% “ 

tt 

“ 5B 

tt 

4% “ 

u 

“ 5A 

u 


The same extreme variability in mastery of subject matter 
was illustrated by the results we obtained in a recent test of 
penmanship ability of approximately 10,000 pupils in grades 4B 
tc 8B, inclusive. Thus, of 1,110 pupils tested in 4B, 


24% 

exceeded the 5A standard 

17% 

u 

“ 5B 

10% 

tt 

“ 6A “ 

8% 

it 

“ 6B “ 

6% 

tt 

“ 7A 

5% 

it 

« 7B “ 

3% 

tt 

“ 8A 

2% 

tt 

“ 8B “ 


83 




Facing the Facts 


On the other hand, of the 1,000 pupils in 8B, 


64% 

failed to attain the 8A standard 

47% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

7B 

47% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

7A 

39% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

6B 

24% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

it 

6A 

17% 

it 

tt 

tt 

tt 

5B 

14% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

5A 

7% 

tt 

tt 

tt 

tt 

4B 


The more accurately we study our statistics of achievement, 
the more we are forced to infer that the common assumption that 
our present class groups are homogeneous as regards the mastery 
of the principal subjects of the curriculum, is a delusion and a 
snare. We predicate our instruction upon that specious basis 
only to discover its ineffectiveness. In crudely organized classes, 
such as exist in many of our schools, while a certain number, 
perhaps the majority of the class, are interested, receptive, and 
succeed fairly well, the pupils of less than average ability strive 
without succeeding and the pupils of ability succeed without 
trying. While such grouping demands excessive effort on the 
part of the conscientious teacher, it destroys in many pupils those 
habits and traits of industry, self-confidence, and self-respect 
which, in value, are immensely superior even to encyclopedic 
knowledge. 

CERTAIN IMPLICATIONS 

Our school system is a growth and an inheritance. Our 
school of today is the successor of the ungraded school of older 
days, in which there was no attempt at class groups, group in¬ 
struction, and semi-annual promotions. As distinct from such 
individualistic type of organization, stands the city school of 
today, with its uniform course of study, its series of grades of 
equal allotments of work to be covered by all pupils in equal 
times, and its semi-annual sorting and advancement of pupils on 
the basis of successful achievement. Both the organization and 
the procedure are based upon the assumption that all children 


84 



Facing the Facts 


have about equal mental ability, that they can progress through 
the grades on the basis of uniform treatment in about equal 
times, and that the kind of sorting at the close of the term to 
which we are accustomed, namely, classification on the basis of 
unstandardized informational tests, is sufficient to insure pupil 
groups, homogeneous as regards ability and achievements. 

Is it not worth while, therefore, to regard our work in a 
critical, impersonal manner and to ask ourselves whether or not 
we should continue unchanged systems of school management 
and instruction based upon such untenable assumptions? 

Although our present grading system is largely chronological 
and assumes that pupils of about equal ability and equal age enter 
at the same time and master subjects and progress at the same 
rate, we know that the truth of the matter is that pupils of a 
given class as ordinarily constituted are of widely, different 
mental types, subnormal, dull, average, bright, or even pre¬ 
cocious, are of widely different ages, have progressed at different 
rates, and differ very much indeed in the mastery of school 
subjects. In other words, while every important consideration, 
economic and pedagogical, makes homogeneity of the class group 
desirable, we still are far from the attainment of such a happy 
condition. 

Fortunately, I believe that the rapid advance in the technique 
of measuring mental ability and accomplishments means that we 
stand on the threshold of a new era in which we will increas¬ 
ingly group our pupils on the basis of both intelligence and 
accomplishment quotients and of necessity, provide differentiated 
curricula, varied modes of instruction, and flexible promotion 
schemes to meet the crying needs of our children. 

In this connection I wish to express my appreciation of dis¬ 
cussions contained in past official reports made by Associate 
Superintendents Andrew W. Edson, Clarence E. Meleney, Gus¬ 
tave Straubenmuller, and Edgar Dubs Shimer, and also my ad¬ 
miration for those district superintendents and principals who, 
in a fine professional spirit, have reduced theory to practice by 


85 



Facing the Facts 


organizing their schools in whole or in part on the basis of the 
newer and better standards made available by recent research. 

I have traversed these several fields of investigation with con¬ 
siderable care, in order to lay before you striking facts that im¬ 
peratively demand continuing scrutiny of our existing class 
organization. The data by schools and districts upon which these 
conclusions are based will be supplied in a printed report which 
will be issued during the current term. As those who occupy 
strategic positions of influence and control over districts or divi¬ 
sions of our schools, you cannot escape the obligation so to 
distribute your time and attention during .the present school year, 
that these larger aspects of school organization and administra¬ 
tion will not be crowded beyond the pale of inquiry and con¬ 
sideration by a host of petty details that more properly character¬ 
ize the functions of the principal or his assistants. 

Moreover, even though, despite earnest effort, you cannot, 
because of wide variation in energy, intelligence, and professional 
skill among our principals, insure in all the schools you supervise, 
the kind of organization you know to be desirable, you can and 
should enlist the efforts of the best of your principals to study 
the problem of grading and to make their schools a pattern and 
a model which others may visit and study. Indeed, I some¬ 
times feel that our system lacks a spirit of generous rivalry in 
matters of attendance, of proficiency, of classification of pupils, 
which, when present, invigorates and inspires all to reach and to 
maintain a maximum effort. Our school system, like the many 
thousands of individuals who compose it, has reservoirs of wis¬ 
dom and energy that will enrich and beautify our fields of 
educational endeavor. But unless the search is made, unless the 
demand arises, we fail to rise to splendid heights of rigorous 
endeavor, and are prone to adopt a complacent laissez-faire 
policy in which self help is regarded as half scandal. 

As those charged with the sacred responsibility of fashioning 
souls for all eternity, let us bring to our daily work the fullest 
information and insight which professional study and research 


86 



Facing the Facts 


make available. Let us bring to the work of the new year a 
mind refreshed and invigorated by a point of view that proves 
that our problems have a richness, a variety, and a significance 
which demand that we undertake their solution with a persistence 
and an enthusiasm that characterize searchers for hidden 
treasure. 

I need not assure you that the foregoing analysis of present 
conditions should not be interpreted as an expression of lack of 
confidence in the effectiveness of our work nor regarded as a plea 
for the hasty adoption of ill-advised plans intended to change the 
conditions revealed. I trust to your intelligence and to your 
initiative to study the conditions in the schools subject to your 
supervision and gradually to effect an improvement of conditions 
by remedies as various as your wisdom may suggest and the 
needs of the situation may demand. As a statement of my 
earnest purpose I cannot do better than to quote the father of 
modern inductive method, Sir Francis Bacon, who wrote: “I 
do not endeavor, either by triumphs of confutation or assump¬ 
tion of authority, to invest these inventions of mine with any 
majesty. I have not sought, nor do I seek, either to force or en¬ 
snare men’s judgments, but I lead them to things themselves and 
the concordances of things, that they may see for themselves 
what they have, what they can dispute, what they can add, and 
contribute to the common stock.” 


87 



THE ETHICAL STANDARDS OF THE TEACHER 


Address before the Schoolmasters’ Association of New York at the Harvard 
Club, New York City, on Friday evening, April 20, 1923. 


S it is not significant that recently we find bodies 
of teachers in Massachusetts, Pennslyvania, 
Ohio, Iowa and Mississippi discussing and 
adopting codes of professional ethics? Such 
deliberations and acts are indicative of the fact 
that the teaching profession is attaining a 
maturity an adolescence, as it were—that inspires a reflective 
attitude which, in turn, leads to a discussion and formulation of 
standards of behavior consonant with the dignity of the service 
which teachers render the community. 

What are such codes of ethics? I presume we may define 
them as a formulation of the ideal relationships that should exist 
between the teacher and the agencies and the persons with whom 
he comes in contact, such as the community, his fellow-teachers, 
his pupils, and those in parental or custodial relation to the pupils! 

\\ here, you may ask, should we look for the origin of such 
codes? In order to have vitality and significance, such codes 
must find their origin, their growth and their formulation in the 
teaching body and therefore should not be imposed upon teachers 
either from without or from above. They are meaningless inso¬ 
far as they are imposed upon teachers; they are vital and con¬ 
trolling insofar as they reflect a sensitive and enlightened profes¬ 
sional conscience. 

When codes of ethics originate in the teaching body they are 
accepted by teachers as a guide to a type of professional attitude 
and behavior which commands the respect and admiration of all 







The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


Do not assume that either in a Pickwickian or a Pecksniffian 
sense I am about to impose a code upon you. I understand that 
a representative committee of the New York City Principals’ 
Association is engaged in studying and formulating a code and 
has already made a tentative report. I have no desire to enter 
into competition with such an admirable committee, but in re¬ 
sponse to your request I will sketch certain general considerations 
which appeal to me as ones that ought to constitute the minimum 
features of such code. 

Relationship to the Community 

What obligation does the teacher owe to the community, using 
that term as one sufficiently elastic to include the city, the state 
and the nation ? Surely we must concede that whether a teacher’s 
employment be the result of an expressed or an implied contrac¬ 
tual relationship, there is a moral obligation to be loyal, patriotic, 
inspiring leaders, both in our community and in our classroom, 
whose service results in an increased understanding and apprecia ¬ 
tion of our institutional life. It is incumbent upon us to be the 
creators of an energized, critical public opinion, which leads to 
the reconstruction and to the betterment of our political and 
social life. You will note that I do not identify the teacher’s duty 
with either flag-waving jingoism or reactionary conservatism 
The successful solution of our city, state and national problems 
requires all the critical thinking we can initiate or inspire. But 
the obligation to develop such powers in our citizenship makes 
it imperative that teachers should not take advantage of the 
privacy of the classroom to assault the mentality of immature 
listeners by indulging in vicious propaganda or exposing to ridi¬ 
cule either the ideals or the institutions of our people, in order 
to clear the way for the promotion and establishment of question¬ 
able ideals and alien modes of government. 

I am sure I need not argue in such a gathering as this that no 
issue of freedom of speech or personal liberty is involved in such 
a statement of a teacher’s obligations. The cheap radicalism of 


89 



The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


a soap-box orator and the pernicious propaganda of the oblique- 
minded parlor socialist cannot be tolerated in the classroom. 
Teachers should be glad to take and be bound by a solemn oath, 
similar to that administered to the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and impar¬ 
tially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me 
according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably 
to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that I will 
support and defend the Constitution of the United States against 
all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and 
allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without 
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will 
well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I 
am about to enter. So help me, God.” 

Unionism 

Perhaps no ethical question involving teachers has aroused 
more recent controversy in various parts of the country than the 
question of membership in unions. Frankness therefore demands 
that I refer briefly to the subject. 

The aim of teacher-unionism, according to its advocates, is 
teacher-participation in school management and administration to 
a much greater degree than has been conceded hitherto. Unionism 
is the golden key, the long-postponed device by means of which 
the administration of education is to be democratized. I am not 
opposed to teacher-unionism, but I do not believe that it is a 
panacea for ills pedagogical or administrative. The movement 
here and elsewhere may easily fall into disrepute if controlled 
by unwise or intemperate leaders or if there be the slightest sus¬ 
picion that the movement has its origin in contentiousness, radi¬ 
calism or disloyalty to the highest ideals of either our profession 
or our government. The answer to the question as to whether 
or not unionism is desirable must be found in the motives that 
prompt teachers to join any group, whether it be a union, a fra¬ 
ternity ‘or a federation. To the extent that such groupings are 


90 




The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


prompted primarily by selfish interests, and are based upon class 
appeal and concepts of economic and national life that run 
counter to those for which our government stands, such groups, 
whether you call them by one name or another, are vicious and 
undemocratic. We can not ignore the bald fact that the schools 
of a democracy are the schools of the whole people, and not the 
schools of a particular class. Moreover, let me affirm with great 
emphasis that nothing can be more detrimental to our schools 
than the assumption that the classroom teachers constitute a 
laboring class, a sort of intellectual proletariat who differ both in 
kind and degree from supervisors and administrators who, by 
analogy, are classed as a sort of pedagogical capitalistic class, 
constituting the sworn oppressors of the teachers with whom thev 
live and labor day by day, and from whose ranks they are chosen. 
Any appeal to gross prejudice or to narrow class consciousness, 
whether labelled unionism or what not, contains the germs com¬ 
mon to anarchism or bolshevism. A teachers' union and the 
general union movement among teachers are just as good or just 
as evil as teachers make them. It is therefore the bounden duty 
of teachers in such organizations to be active to prevent the 
use of such groups for personal, political, or professional exploi¬ 
tation, and, above all, to maintain and promote those fine concep¬ 
tions of service to our children and to our city which have always 
distinguished the teaching profession. 

Relationship to Fellow-Teachers 

Need I state that teachers should display towards their Supe¬ 
riors and their professional associates that fine regard and con¬ 
sideration for one’s professional reputation that is the boast of 
the legal and medical professions? 

The amenities of life and of professional relationships should 
be carefully observed. He whose services are marked by merit 
and distinction should receive the hearty appreciation of his 
fellows, unclouded by envy or captious criticism. With his supe¬ 
riors a teacher should work in a spirit of respectful, subordinated, 
harmonious cooperation. 


91 



The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


The real ethical problem arises when subserviency or acquies¬ 
cence in wrong are expected or demanded in place of courageous 
expression of conviction and the assertion and maintenance of 
rights. In a very real sense every one of us, from the Super¬ 
intendent of Schools down to the most humble substitute, is a 
guardian of certain professional standards and legal rights. 
Therefore, no considerations of personal profit, comfort or ad¬ 
vancement, no consideration of securing the good will and favor 
of those in either upper or lower ranks of the service, should 
prevent a courageous and outspoken assertion and sturdy main¬ 
tenance of professional rights and obligations. 

For example, if I may presume to be personal, in a recent 
proceeding it was alleged that the Superintendent of Schools had 
indulged in captious criticism and for that and other reasons was 
insubordinate. I believe that you will readily concede that a 
superintendent of schools should be neither subservient on the 
one hand, nor insubordinate, on the other. I trust I am neither. 
But as one who has taken a solemn oath to carry out provisions 
of law, I am in duty bound to seek legal remedies to maintain 
the statutory rights of the superintendent’s office and to insure 
the orderly administration of the schools. Need I assure you 
that such actions as I have taken were at considerable cost, not 
only to my own pocket, but to my own ease and comfort. My 
sole desire and aim is to live up to the traditions and obligations 
of a great office. 

In short, between the teacher and his professional colleagues 
as well as his statutory superiors there should exist the utmost 
respect, appreciation and cooperation, not inconsistent with the 
maintenance of professional service at the highest possible level 
of manly self-assertion, honest achievement and orderly admin¬ 
istration in accordance with the spirit and the letter of the law. 

Perhaps a word about professional associations other than 
unions is not inappropriate. 

No one will deny the value of concerted action in the interests 
of worthy ends. 


92 



The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


We have numerous associations. As George Ade says, one 
can not throw a brick out of the window without hitting one of 
the brethren. We have a Teachers’ Council, which is composed 
of representatives of such associations; we have a Federation, 
which theoretically is made up of representatives of the numer¬ 
ous professional associations. Recently much progress has been 
made in the development of a city-wide organization, intended 
either to supplement or to supersede some of the existing ones. 

Wherever our sympathies lie, I think we should attempt to 
solve the problem of professional associations in an impersonal, 
impartial way, with an eye solely to the establishment of a repre¬ 
sentative organization which in moments of crisis or in relation 
to matters of grave importance, will register, not discordant and 
contradictory voices of a score of organizations, but will register 
with majesty and dignity the well-considered decision of a ma¬ 
jority of our vast army of teachers. 

In like manner, I am strongly convinced that membership in 
our local organizations should be supplemented by membership 
in a national body. We should not fail to identify ourselves with 
our colleagues throughout the width and the breadth of the land. 
Education countrywide needs a well-equipped, strongly organ¬ 
ized, adequately financed, far-visioned organization, such as the 
National Education Association, in order that the teachers rather 
than the Carnegie Foundation or the United States Chamber of 
Commerce shall decide far-reaching educational policies affecting 
not only the teachers but the children of our country. Let not 
a selfish complacency prevent us from shouldering a burden 
which is national in scope. 

Relation to Pupils 

In relation to his pupils, a teacher should be an exemplar of 
physical, mental and moral growth. Note that I emphasize 
growth rather than complete achievement. If the teacher is to be 
a master-craftsman who discovers to the pupil his latent powers, 
who reveals to the pupil the golden nimbus that surrounds each 


93 



The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


head, he must be a skillful and sympathetic master to whom 
stupid rule of thumb procedure and bitter cynicism are unknown. 

The unskillful, the unsympathetic, the cynical teacher is be¬ 
yond the pale and range of an ethical code. Day by day he does 
irreparable injury to child nature. He finds his own lack of 
skill, his own mental obtuseness, his own bitterness,, objectified in 
the lives of innocent, well-intentioned children. Let us work 
without ceasing to improve our weaker professional brother, but 
when he has failed to respond to long sustained remedial treat¬ 
ment, let us be the first, in the interests of childhood, to insist 
upon his ouster from the school system. 

Verily, the cultured, skillful sympathetic teacher is a posses¬ 
sion beyond price, whose influence is found not merely in the 
present generation, but in our children’s children. 

Relation to Parents 

In a very real and in a legal sense the teacher stands in loco 
parentis to the pupil and therefore should seek to identify himself 
with the interests, the plans, and the ambitions of the parent 
as regards his children. Churlishness, incivility, lack of cooper- 
tion, disinclination to inform and advise should be characteristics 
foreign to any real teacher. 

Our typical failure to secure the cooperation of the children 
and their parents is due in large part to the teachers’ remoteness 
and detachment from the human relationships of the home. 
There is no better cure for such condition than for the teacher 
to come into close contact with the parent through visitation, 
either at the home or at the school, and through various other 
devices such as formal parents’ meetings or more sociable gather¬ 
ings. In the eyes of the teacher, the pupil as one of a mass teads 
to lose his individuality, his identity, and it is only by making 
this human contact with the parent that the teacher will really see 
and understand the child in certain relationships that are the 
basis not only of individuality, but also of that teacher-insight 
which is the foundation of successful teaching. 


94 



The Ethical Standards of the Teacher 


Conclusion 

Perhaps the much desired aims of those who are striving to 
set up, in concise and almost catechetical form, the standards 
that appear to be peculiarly applicable to the teaching profession 
may not be attained through such formulation. Indeed, those 
who prepare and disseminate such codes may find that teachers 
fail to display any marked enthusiasm over the principles formul¬ 
ated. If we meet with such failure it will probably be because 
we are over-emphasizing the letter rather than the spirit, of which 
such ethical code is but the literal expression. The spirit is all. 
We may, ourselves, be deceived as to the range of influence of 
such codes. But we should not be discouraged. The teaching 
profession to-day occupies higher levels of accomplishment and 
inspiration than ever before. We are moving ever onward and 
upward. The ethical codes in question may find their analogue 
not in the turbulent waters that rush down the glen and the 
valley, roaring in their course, but rather in the quiet under¬ 
ground waters, unseen and unheard, that moisten and make 
fertile the pleasant valleys. 


95 



OUR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROBLEM 


Address before Associate and District Superintendents, and Principals of 
Senior and Junior High Schools, Sept. 1923. 


The Problem 

it not true that perhaps no other social agencies 
receive to an equal degree the vigorous and 
continuous cross-fire of criticism, constructive 
and destructive, that is concentrated on our pub¬ 
lic school systems. A general conviction in the 
public mind that the schools are the chief re¬ 
liance of our nation, not only to promote individual capacity for 
happiness and service, but also to insure in perpetuity the suc¬ 
cess of our experiment in democratic government, is apparently 
the mainspring of an attitude of critical evaluation in which 
both fulsome praise and unwarranted criticism are evidenced. 
While many, pessimistically inclined, are critical of innovations 
and tend to misjudge the efficiency of our work while gauging 
it by the standards of a past generation, others filled with the 
spirit of zealous reformers, accuse us of inertia or even reac¬ 
tionary policies, because in their zeal they fail to realize that 
enduring advances are attained not by leaps, but by the gradual 
modification of existing ideals, agencies and methods. 

In my opinion a progressive school system must be responsive 
not only to public criticism but also to those quieter and more 
pervasive changes in viewpoint that are the expression not of 
hysterical impulse, on the one hand, or of traditional dogmatism, 
on the other, but of those intensive studies, experiments, and ex¬ 
periences which carry decision and conviction because of the 



96 









Our Junior High School Problem 


painstaking, inductive and conclusive manner in which they have 
been conducted. 

I need hardly remind you that in recent years the generally 
accepted uniform eight-year single-track curriculum which has 
been in force in this city since consolidation, twenty-five years, 
ago, has been criticised not only by the laymen who came in 
contact with our graduates, but also by the schoolmen in the 
elementary as well as in the secondary schools, who, with a bet¬ 
ter knowledge of our growing youth, realized the degree to 
which such education failed to adapt itself to the diversity and 
the versatility of adolescent interests and abilities. 

What have been some of the chief criticisms directed against 
the traditional plan of school organization? ft was alleged that 
the older plan in relation to secondary and college education 
made the period of formal education entirely too long to meet 
present social conditions; that the seventh, and eighth year grades, 
as ordinarily organized, were merely an intensified repetition of 
the work of the preceding years, rather than an appeal to new 
interests and to more mature powers; that the work of the upper 
grades did not articulate with the work of the first year of the 
senior high school; that pupils were taught and handled en masse; 
that the traditional activities and studies of the old type schools 
did not recognize the budding and diversified interests of early 
adolescence, and, as a result, that the discipline, the mode of 
instruction, and even the theory of class administration failed to 
meet the mental, emotional, and volitional demands of the 
adolescent. It has been charged that because of such conditions, 
our educational service has been seriously ineffective as measured 
by achievement tests, retardation, and elimination, in both the 
last two years of the elementary school, and in the first high 
school year. Additional criticisms might be enumerated but the 
foregoing will suffice to show that the orthodox eight-year, uni¬ 
form curriculum has been on the defensive for some time past. 

As soon as schoolmen began carefully to analyze the situation, 
the validity of these criticisms became apparent. The majority 


97 




Our Junior High School Problem 


of the children on reaching the seventh school year are becoming 
adolescents and therefore in terms of physical and mental growth, 
and in their own emotional and volitional reactions, differ much 
from the prepubescent pupils of the lower grade. Thus, a year 
ago, there were in the elementary grades approximately 88,000 
pupils ranging from 13^4 to 18 years of age, an enrollment which, 
as regards size and age, equals 90% of the entire enrollment of 
our high schools. Moreover, the application of intelligence and 
achievement tests, as illustrated in my last annual address entitled 
“Facing the Facts,” shows a very wide range of mental ability 
and of achievement, irrespective of chronological age or grouping 
in the average class or grade. An analysis of individual tastes, 
inclinations, and abilities, as well as the present social status 
and the prospective placement of present pupils, in the work-a-day 
world, shows the folly of uniform training and the need of a 
differentiated and enriched curriculum. Indeed, insofar as we 
had ignored the practical interests of our adolescent youth and 
had restricted their education to a zone of bookish interests, we 
had developed an educational system which I have repeatedly 
characterized as narrow in scope, disappointing in results, and 
aristocratic rather than democratic in spirit. 

Only recently, as the result of such factors as our own keen 
dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of our work both at the 
close of the elementary grades and in the early years of high 
school, the extension of departmental instruction in the seventli 
and eighth years, the development and application of intelligence 
and achievement tests, the fuller appreciation of the unique phys¬ 
ical and spiritual awakening incident to adolescence, the success¬ 
ful introduction of industrial and commercial courses in the 
upper elementary grades, and the results of experimental work 
in this and in other cities, did we evolve a coherent and con¬ 
vincing philosophy of what has been called the 6-3 plan of organ¬ 
ization, in which the last three years constitute what is known as 
the intermediate, junior high, or neighborhood high school period 
Furthermore, when, as a result of an unprecedented demand for 
secondary education, due to war influences, to conditions in the 


98 





Our Junior High School Problem 


labor market, to an upward revision of the compulsory education 
law, and to the establishment of continuation schools, the exist¬ 
ing high schools were unable to accommodate the elementary 
school graduates who demanded admission, the situation rapidly 
crystallized and resulted in the decision to develop a system of 
junior high schools. 


The Growth of the Idea 


If time permitted it would be interesting to sketch the his¬ 
torical development of the junior high school plan in this city, 
as embodied in the establishment of such intermediate schools as 
Public Schools 24 and 62, Manhattan, opened in 1905, in which 
were segregated pupils of the seventh and eighth years, but in 
which, as originally organized, there were no ninth year classes 
or differentiated courses of study. Interesting also is the later 
modification of these and additional school organizations in 1916, 
when, as the result of a report by Associate Superintendents 
Straubenmuller and Shallow, the work was extended through 
the ninth year and the differentiated courses were provided, be¬ 
ginning with the seventh school year. Such organizations in¬ 
cluded industrial courses which were the outgrowth of experi¬ 
ments in several prevocational schools established under my 
supervision in September, 1914, as the result of a definite plan to 
enrich the curriculum, in contrast to the method employed in 
other experimental schools organized on the work-study-and-play 
plan. 

The logical and practical outcome of these newer educational 
ideals, and of the success attained in these several experimental 
schools, was the policy advocated by the Honorable Arthur S. 
Somers, ever a keen student of educational policies, in his in¬ 
augural address as President of the Board of Education in 
January, 1918, and the resolution subsequently adopted by that 
Board, requesting the Board of Superintendents to appoint a com¬ 
mittee to investigate and report upon the desirability of organiz- 


99 



Our Junior High School Problem 


ing our schools on the basis of a six-year elementary, a three-year 
intermediate, and a three-year high school plan. 

The policy outlined in this resolution was definitely adopted 
by the Board of Education in November, 1918, and since that 
time the work has been under the efficient and scholarly super¬ 
vision of Associate Superintendent Gustave Straubenmuller, as¬ 
sisted by District Superintendent John S. Roberts and a group of 
principals who have rendered exceptionally fine service unde 1 * 
very difficult conditions. 

In accordance with the policy above set forth, we have de¬ 
veloped a system of junior high schools or neighborhood high 
schools which, as of October last, 1922, included 43 schools 
representing an enrollment of 55,894 pupils in the seventh, eight, 
and ninth year grades. Of this total, 29,375, or 53%, were found 
in 22 Manhattan schools, 10,022, or 18%, were found in 8 Bronx 
schools, and 16,497, or 29%, were found in 12 schools in Brook¬ 
lyn, and 1 school in Richmond. Of the total enrollment, 12,518 
pupils were registered in the ninth year, and 42,681 were in 
grades 7A-8B, grouped either in rapid progress, normal progress, 
or slow progress classes. By February last, the register had 
grown by 5,525, making a net register of 61,429, the growth being 
due entirely to growth within the junior high school organization. 
As a reorganization of such magnitude represents many perplex¬ 
ing problems, you may properly ask what basic ideas controlled 
our procedure. 

The Development of a System of Junior High Schools 

Conceiving the junior high school as one in which the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth year grades are integrated, we recognized from 
the outset that existing congestion would prevent us from follow¬ 
ing the liberal policy adopted in other cities, of housing the junior 
high school organization in separate buildings, similar to those 
used by the traditional senior high school. The congestion ex¬ 
tending city wide and affecting practically one-half of our total 
elementary and high school enrollment, compelled us to organize 


100 




Our Junior High School Problem 


the junior high school grades in existing school buiLdings and 
within existing school organizations which included the lower 
grades as well. As a result of generous budgetary provisions for 
the renovation and equipment of the buildings thus used, all our 
junior high schools have adequate equipment—science rooms, 
biology rooms, typewriting rooms, laboratories, etc.—needed to 
teach the general and commercial courses. Some of our junior 
high schools, for example Junior High Schools 60 and 61, The 
Bronx, are organized in beautiful new buildings. Some others, 
for example Junior High Schools 62, 64, 95, Manhattan, 45 and 
55, The Bronx, have adequate equipment for the industrial course 
also. However, some of our junior high schools are organized 
in buildings which have no auditoriums. Furthermore, the city 
has not as yet built new buildings which were designed and 
planned especially for junior high school work. 

We rapidly outgrew the crude conception that success in this 
junior high school movement could be attained by the haphazard 
organization here and there, of schools increased by the addition 
of ninth year pupils from neighboring eighth year schools, and 
the correlative error of permitting eighth year graduates in the 
remaining schools to choose between going to the neighboring 
junior high school organization or attending a distant senior high 
school. We therefore concentrated upon the plan of developing 
not isolated junior high schools, but rather a unified system of 
such organizations, definitely located in relationship to sixth-year 
schools. Each school thus organized retained its own pupils who 
were promoted into the seventh year and also the 7 -A entrants 
from neighboring schools, for the full span of three years. 

There was a time when one often heard statements to the 
effect that a junior high school could be organized by “adding a 
ninth year”; or “by enrolling the graduates from neighboring 
8-B schools”; or “that high schools could be relieved of over¬ 
crowding, if only the junior high schools would take all the 
graduates of the 8-B schools.” Those who advanced such argu¬ 
ments had no? grasped the essential feature of junior high school 
organization which is the integration of the seventh, eighth, and 


101 



Our Junior High School Problem 


ninth grades, with diversified courses of study and homogeneous 
class groups progressing at different rates of speed in the several 
courses. Moreover, even if it were educationally desirable to 
enroll graduates of 8-B schools in junior high schools it would 
be physically impossible for junior high school organizations to 
accommodate more than a small fraction of such graduates. 

It is important to note the contrast between the establishment 
of a few such schools in different parts of the city, without re¬ 
gard to a comprehensive plan, and the organization of a care¬ 
fully planned system of such schools. Experience has shown that 
if there are only a few junior high schools scattered throughout 
the various boroughs, so that only a few 9-B graduates enter 
senior high schools from them, these pupils have to encounter 
not only all the difficulties which pupils ordinarily meet, who 
pass from one school to another, but in addition they encounter 
the added disadvantage arising from the fact that their classmates 
having been in the senior high school for an entire year are more 
familiar with the high school organization, its teachers, and its 
methods. Despite the fact that the principals and the teachers of 
the senior high schools were sincerely anxious to aid junior high 
school graduates, they found themselves, under such plan, per¬ 
plexed by too many difficult problems to permit a satisfactory 
adjustment. If the number of such pupils is small, it is almost 
impossible to organize them into separate classes or to give them 
special attention. If the junior high school graduates are merged 
with pupils who have been in the high school for a year, even 
slight differences in courses of study, textbooks, and the amount 
of ground covered stand out as prominent difficulties demanding 
special adjustment. These problems disappear in large part 
when, as the result of the organization of a system of junior 
high schools, large numbers of junior high school pupils enter 
grade 10-A of the senior high schools each term. 

Furthermore, it is an unwise educational policy to have two 
sets of schools, namely, the 8-B schools and the junior high 
schools, working side by side in a given neighborhood. Such a 
plan results in some pupils of a given area attending the first 


102 





Our Junior High School Problem 


type of school, pursuing a uniform course of study through the 
seventh and eighth years and the others pursuing a differentiated 
course of study during the eighth and ninth years. The problem 
of the assimilation of these two groups by the senior high schools 
has been a very difficult one, demanding most careful planning 
on the part of our senior high school principals. 

Experience apparently points to the conclusion that since the 
organization of a system of junior high schools has been decided 
upon, as a matter of educational policy, steps should be taken to 
extend it, term by term, with the ultimate aim of relieving the 
senior high schools of all or nearly all the pupils of the first year, 
and also of having all or nearly all seventh, eight, and ninth year 
pupils included in the junior high school organizations. 

As I have frequently pointed out in earlier reports, we should 
assume as axiomatic the principle that there is no longer any 
justification for treating large masses of upper grade children as 
though they were identical and equivalent units as regards native 
ability, scholarship attainments, practical interests, or ability to 
traverse equal sectors of learning in equal units of time. There¬ 
fore, in these schools we have applied prognostic tests and later, 
achievement tests to practically all new entrants and have used 
the results as the basis of class groupings and differentiated cur¬ 
ricula. In the junior high schools you will now find the following 
typical groupings: 

(a) Rapid progress pupils: those who are competent to do all 
the required work of the course of study for the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth years, and also some additional work, in less than three 
years. 

(b) Normal progress pupils: those who are competent to do 
all the work of the seventh, eighth, and ninth years in the normal 
time, with a reasonable standard of proficiency. 

(c) Slow progress pupils: those who require more than the 
normal three-year period to complete the course of study, or those 
for whom the course of study must be modified or simplified, so 
that they may obtain as much benefit from it as possible in each 
grade, without being required to repeat the grade. 


103 



Our Junior High School Problem 


(d) Over-age pupils, 13 years of age or older: those who are 
admitted to the junior high schools upon the completion of grade 
5-B. Pupils of these V classes come to the junior high schools 
without having been in the sixth year grades. 

We need not indulge in any learned discussion as to the 
validity of the means employed in the making of such groupings, 
to realize that however imperfect may be the methods employed, 
whether gross scores or intelligence quotients, the plan is colored 
throughout by a clear cut, dempcratic conception that the school 
must recognize and allow for individual differences in interests, 
abilities, and rates of progression, to the end that both the 
“skipper” and the “hold-over” may be regarded as relics of a 
remote, unskilful and discarded form of school organization. 
Strange to say, both the slow child and the precocious child were 
equally neglected in the older types of class and school manage¬ 
ment. On neither were demands made, commensurate with his 
ability. One labored without success; the other succeeded with¬ 
out striving. The one too often joined the standing army of 
failures, the other the army of the indolent. To lessen the de¬ 
mands made on the one type, and to increase the demands made 
on the other, are prime essentials of scientific organization, man¬ 
agement, and instruction. 

The correlative of such grading plan was the development of 
a three-fold course of study, academic, commercial, and indus¬ 
trial, and also an arrangement of such courses to meet the needs 
of rapid, normal, and slow-moving groups. Other important con¬ 
siderations, such as the articulation of the junior high school 
grades with the preceding sixth year, and also with the second 
year of the senior high school, and the requirements of the Board 
of Regents, are factors in the problem which call for careful 
study. Those of our junior high schools today which are large 
enough, and they can be successful only if sufficiently large, and 
which have proper and sufficient equipment, offer the following: 

(a) A general course, with a foreign language as an elective; 

(b) A general course, without a foreign language, but with 
additional time devoted to English or some other subject not a 
foreign language; 


104 




Our Junior High School Problem 


(c) A commercial course, with a foreign language as an elective; 

(d) A commercial course, designed for pupils who do not intend 
to continue their education beyond the junior high school; 

(e) An industrial or manual training course, of a prevocational 
type. 

As far as possible these courses are offered to rapid progress, 
normal progress, and slow progress pupils. The differentiation in 
courses begins in 7- A, for those who desire to pursue the indus¬ 
trial courses, whereas, in the general commercial courses, the 
differentiation begins in grade 8-A, a practice that is in con¬ 
formity with the best plan developed in other cities. The selection 
of differentiated courses is made partly by the pupils and partly 
by the parents, under the guidance and with the help of prin¬ 
cipals and teachers. In some schools vocational counsellors and 
bureaus are in operation and have proved to be of great 
assistance. 

The Development of a System of Junior High Schools 

% 

The selection of competent principals and teachers to staff the 
newly organized junior high schools presented no insurmountable 
difficulty. The schools designated had exceptionally competent 
principals and our system of promotion licenses assured us a 
plentiful supply o-f teachers who were not only experienced in 
grade teaching but who either were competent at the moment, 
to teach the new subjects required or were sufficiently flexible and 
versatile to review and to master the new subjects through in¬ 
tensive study. The Board of Examiners gave all possible assist¬ 
ance by quickly making available eligible lists for the needed 
teachers of Latin, French, and Spanish. Furthermore, both 
general and subject conferences were held at frequent intervals 
and in such work several high school teachers rendered very 
valuable assistance. New systems of records and modes of ad¬ 
ministration were devised and adopted. The selected teachers 
soon realized that the new plan meant a stimulating study of new 


105 



Our Junior High School Problem 


subject matter and a broadening experience in a more compli¬ 
cated type of departmentalized instruction. Narrow specialization 
has been discouraged. In order that teachers may not lose the 
child in the subject matter, they have been encouraged to study 
and have been programmed in more than one subject. The 
ideal constantly held before them is that the imparting of knowl¬ 
edge is secondary and subordinate to the development of ability 
and character. 

We have made haste slowly with the idea of permitting 
teachers to grow in specialized knowledge and experience. Thus, 
in a newly organized junior high school, ninth year classes are 
not organized immediately, but for a year or more pupils are 
admitted only to the seventh, or at most, to the seventh and eighth 
grades. During the first term, following the designation of the 
school, the principal is advised to classify the pupils into rapid 
progress, normal progress, and slow progress groups, to intro¬ 
duce the rapid advancement course to 7 -A pupils, and the differ¬ 
entiated course for normal progress and slow progress pupils in 
grade 8-A. He is also advised to obtain during the first year 
teachers competent to teach the new subjects, such as foreign 
languages, commercial arithmetic, algebra, bookkeeping, biology, 
community civics, typewriting, commercial geography, and to 
study with them the syllabi in these subjects. 

The ninth year classes, therefore, are not authorized until 
the pupils in these new schools have pursued the differentiated 
courses for at least one year. This plan affords an opportunity 
for the principal and the teachers to study the syllabuses of the 
new subjects, to prepare themselves by intensive study of the 
new subjects, to discuss methodology and supervision in con¬ 
ferences, and to visit other junior high and senior high schools, 
to observe the manner in which similar problems are handled. 
Indeed, too much praise cannot be given to the splendid manner 
in which the teachers and principals of the junior high schools 
attacked and solved their many difficult problems. 


106 




Our Junior High School Problem 


Functioning of the System 

As the test of theory is the resulting practice, it is interesting 
to inquire in a pragmatic spirit, concerning the facts disclosed 
by the recent survey made by a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Gustave Straubenmuller, Chairman, and William A. Boylan, 
James M. Edsall, Jacob Greenberg, Cecil A. Kidd, John S. 
Roberts, John L. Tildsley, Joseph K. Van Denburg, and Benjamin 
Veit. You may properly ask: How do these new school organ¬ 
izations affect congestion; how are the pupils graded; how 
effective is the instruction; what difficulties have arisen in connec¬ 
tion with the statps of teachers; and no doubt numerous other 
inquiries possibly of lesser importance. With your indulgence I 
will discuss briefly a few of these major problems. 

Effect on Congestion 

One of the earliest arguments advanced in favor of the 
junior high school organization was that it would relieve con¬ 
gestion to a certain degree because it was assumed that the 
segregation of seventh, eighth, and ninth year pupils would 
permit of larger registers than were found at times in the average 
eight-year school. Moreover, it was predicted by those who had 
given the problem careful study that existing congestion would be 
still further relived by the rapid progress made by the homo¬ 
geneous class units of bright pupils and by the reduction of 
retardation in the other classes. I am happy to state that there 
is substantial evidence that both types of gain have been realized. 

The report of the Survey Committee shows that the junior 
high schools have absorbed approximately 13,000 pupils in their 
ninth year classes. Of these approximateely 7,000 would ordi¬ 
narily graduate from the normal 8-B grades of the elementary 
schools and if the junior high schools had not offered ninth year 
instruction to them, many of them would have gone on to senior 
high schools, thereby increasing the congestion in them. Approxi¬ 
mately 6,000 of these pupils—those who are in the rapid progress 


107 



Our Junior High School Problem 


classes—would ordinarily be in the eighth grade. Moreover, by 
means of the rapid progress of bright pupils through the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth years, about 60% of all the junior high school 
pupils who completed grade 9-B in the junior high schools gained 
either one term or one year in their progress through the junior 
high school grades. The survey shows also that, although some 
pupils who completed grade 9-B in the junior high schools took 
more than six calendar terms to do the work of grades 7-A— 
9-B, yet the number of terms gained by rapid progress pupils 
not only counterbalanced this loss, but produced a great gain, so 
much so that on the average all the pupils who completed grade 
9-B, whether in rapid—normal—or slow progress classes, took 
only five calendar terms to do six terms of work. Looked at 
from another point of view, the number of terms gained by pupils 
who completed grade 9-B in junior high schools during the terms 
ending January and July, 1922, is equivalent to the release of 
120 classrooms for the use of other pupils. This gain in class¬ 
rooms is equivalent to the additional accommodations that would 
be provided through the erection of two 60-classr6om buildings, 
each equipped with a full complement of special rooms and 
activities. 

In short, by the more compact organization of upper grade 
classes in congested areas, by the organization of junior high 
schools, in areas where vacant sittings formerly existed, and by 
the rapid progress of bright pupils as well as the normal progress 
of other pupils, many of whom were formerly laggards in the 
grades, the junior high schools have not only not increased con¬ 
gestion, but, on the contrary, have helped to lessen it both in the 
elementary grades and in the high schools. 

The only way in which junior high schools can be charged 
with having increased congestion in the senior high schools is 
by their superior holding power through which some pupils who 
would have discontinued their education upon graduation from 
grade 8-B, have been encouraged to continue their schooling 
through the ninth year and through the senior high school. This 
is a very desirable educational result. 


108 





Our Junior High School Problem 


Savings Effected 

As every educational policy casts a financial shadow and as 
our educational budget in the near future will amount to ap¬ 
proximately 30% of the total tax levy, it is important to note 
the economies resulting from the foregoing conditions. Thus, 
as school buildings are costing approximately $25,000.00 pet 
classroom unit, the gain in buildings represents approximately 
$3,000,000.00. Again, considering the group of 4,086 pupils 
who had gained one year’s schooling as of a certain date, we 
see that such a group represents approximately 100 classes of 
40 pupils to each class, which in turn would require at least 112 
teachers for one year longer, if they had been retained in normal 
progress classes. 

The Survey Committee reports that, basing its estimates on 
$1,950.00 per annum, per teacher, which is the budgetary allow¬ 
ance for a teacher in junior high schools, and including other 
savings, such reorganization represents an annual saving of 
$286,500.00. If the estimates be based on $2,650.00 per teacher, 
per annum, which is the budgetary allowance for a teacher in the 
senior high schools, the annual saving would be $335,100.00. 

I would not have you assume for a moment that we are trying 
to effect economies inconsistent with the highest possible type 
of educational service. Indeed, as I recently stated in another 
public address, a nation dedicated to the development of Amer¬ 
ican civilization, founded upon self-government, cannot afford 
to place the dollar above the interest of the child. I am sure it is 
a conviction of our people that the race between civilization and 
political catastrophe is being waged not only during the turbulent 
days of war but also during the halycon days of peace, and that 
education alone will determine the final issue. While appropri¬ 
ations for educational service throughout the country are hardly 
commensurate with this abiding conviction, yet financial support 
is becoming more adequate and continuous year by year. Never¬ 
theless, whenever economies are not inconsistent with the im- 


109 



Our Junior High School Problem 


provement of our educational service, we would be derelict in 
our obligation to the community if we did not, by continued study 
and skilful experimentation, conserve our school funds, not in 
order to divert them to other civic activities, but rather to devote 
them to other phases of education that need either expansion or 
enrichment. 


Grading Pupils 

Perhaps one of the most significant forward steps made by 
the junior high school organization has been the application of 
prognostic tests and the utilization of the knowledge thus gained 
for the classification of pupils. Thus, thirty-one of the junior 
high schools employed intelligence tests, such as the New Na¬ 
tional, the Haggerty, the Otis, the Mentimeter, the Terman, as 
well as tests for specific abilities, such as the Wilkins, the Sten- 
quist, and the Toops tests, as the basis of classifying 7-A 
entrants into five or more mental groups. The principals have 
used such material on the assumption that within limits such 
tests do measure a pupil’s ability to acquire abstract ideas, even 
though they do not measure diligence, integrity, originality, tact, 
sympathy, or social cooperation. The psychological ratings as¬ 
signed may or may not be an impeachment of the ratings assigned 
to the pupil in the past, but they are of immense value as an 
index of what the pupil may be expected to do in his future 
work if ill-health, laziness, or environmental distractions do not 
prevent him from devoting a reasonable amount of energy to 
school work. A knowledge gained by means of such tests is of 
value not only to the pupil insofar as it tells him his normal 
mental speed, to the teacher insofar as it enables her to gauge the 
demands she is entitled to make of the pupil, but also to the 
principal, in that such knowledge gives him a scientific basis 
for class organization. The application of this mode of classi¬ 
fication as a substitute for the older, unstandardized method, has 
been paralleled by a correlated modification of the course of study 
so that where the entering group consists of approximately 300 


no 



Our Junior High School Problem 


pupils or more, it is possible to organize five types of classes 
composed of: 

One quickest learning class of 45 pupils each. 

Two above-average classes of 40 pupils each. 

Three average classes of 35 pupils each. 

One below-average class of 30 pupils each. 

One siow-1 earning class of 25 pupils each. 

Such groupings are regarded as tentative and after a period 
of ten weeks are further modified by the application of achieve¬ 
ment tests which measure the progress actually made as the 
result of instruction. In other words, after an honest attempt to 
induce all pupils of equal native ability to achieve results of 
equal quantity and like quality, we reclassify them on the basis 
of what they have accomplished in actual school work. 

As already indicated, the modification of the course of study, 
so as to provide for a basic, tripartite curriculum, modified as to 
kind and amount of content, is being gradually developed so as 
to do away with the necessity of either leaving back the slow 
or skipping the precocious pupil. 


Instructional Results 

In attempting to evaluate the junior high schools, the question 
that arises most spontaneously and most frequently, is whether 
or not the instructional results compare favorably with those of 
the senior high schools. In reply to such inquiries, may I state 
that I am of the opinion that our work is not sufficiently ad¬ 
vanced to justify a conclusive answer. However, judged by cer¬ 
tain standards, the work of the junior high schools appears to 
be at least as effective as the work of the senior high schools in 
corresponding subjects. Thus, the Survey Committee reports 
that for the term ending June, 1922, it appears that in eight basic 
subjects the percentage of failures in the first and second terms 
in the junior high schools was less than the percentage of 
failures in the corresponding terms of the senior high schools; 


111 




Our Junior High School Problem 


periods of assigned work and the teachers of most other subjects 
not more than 28 periods of assigned work, per week. 

In addition to a more equitable adjustment of the teaching 
load, I think the work of the junior high schools is sufficiently far 
removed from the experimental stage to justify the issuance of a 
special type of license and the adoption of a higher salary sched¬ 
ule more nearly approximating that of the senior high school, or 
by the addition of three additional years to the present junior 
high school schedules. The present anomalous condition of hav¬ 
ing teachers holding different licenses and receiving different 
rates of compensation, doing practically identical work, is excus¬ 
able only on the ground that the present organizations are re¬ 
garded as transient, experimental ones. Such a conception, how¬ 
ever, is no longer justified. Unless we meet the situation by 
changes such as I have suggested, the present staff of junior high 
school teachers will continue to pass upward into the senior high 
schools, much to the detriment of the younger type of school 
organization. I am confident that after the conditions are fully 
appreciated, the Board of Education will make proper budgetary 
provisions to provide the junior high school teachers with the 
higher rate of compensation which they so well deserve. 

Future Attitude 

No one familiar with the facts will deny that for a time there 
was latent hostility to the organization and the extension of* 
junior high schools. Instead of hearty cooperation, passive 
resistance was encountered. Local pride demanded that existing 
eight-year schools be preserved intact. Schools that had been 
eight-year units were regarded as decapitated organizations when 
changed to the six-year plan. Parents frequently insisted that 
pupils, upon the completion of the eighth year, were entitled to 
go to the senior high schools, rather than to the nearby junior 
high schools. Gradually, however, increased wisdom, greater 
good-will and professional cooperation have prevailed. Former 
opponents of the plan now see that the organization of the junior 


114 




Our Junior High School Problem 


high schools is an important forward movement in the direction 
of a more democratic and flexible type of schooling. In the 
last analysis we all concede that the interests of the children are 
paramount and that no pride of rank, no petty rivalries, no rever¬ 
ence for traditions should blind us to the need of fearless inves¬ 
tigation and frank acknowledgment of results obtained. There¬ 
fore, in closing, may I express my cordial appreciation of the 
splendid efforts of those who have so loyally cooperated in the 
past, and may I plead for the united and loyal support of every 
district superintendent and every principal, to the end that our 
system of junior high schools may receive that undivided coop¬ 
eration and approval which are so essential to the successful 
organization and operation of junior high schools, a recent but 
vigorous innovation in school organization, which the welfare of 
our adolescent children imperatively demands. 


115 



THE AMERICAN SCHOOL PROGRAM FROM THE 
STANDPOINT OF THE CITY 


Address delivered before the National Education Association at San 
Francisco, California, July 3, 1923 


N discussing the topic, “The American School 
Program from the standpoint of the City,” it 
may be advisable to consider briefly the in¬ 
teresting part that cities have played in the 
development of education in the United 
States. 

The leading cities of our country are remarkable not only 
for their rapid growth but also for their political and social 
influence. As distinct from rural communities they may be called 
the ganglia of our vast body politic. They are highly energized 
and unstable centers of human energy, receiving, transforming 
and sending afar stimuli that determine the character of our 
national life. The city which I have the honor to represent is 
perhaps the most striking exemplification of such truths. Within 
a space of little more than three hundred years the island with 
its adjacent lands, where lurked the redman and the surrounding 
waters where glided his birchbark canoe, have become the home 
of approximately 6,000,000 people who wield tremendous power 
in the fields of industry, commerce and finance. The Leviathan 
has replaced the canoe on the glistening waters of the Hudson 
and mighty aeroplanes soar high over that marvelous cathedral 
of commerce, the Woolworth Building, the golden spires of 
which are emblematic not only of present accomplishments but 
of our aspirations for the future. 

Cities, whether they be New York, Chicago, St. Louis or San 
Francisco, have proved to be a striking feature of our national 



116 









The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 

growth. By the close of the Civil War pioneer life, symbolized 
by the covered wagon, had blazed the way for rural communities 
and while they, in turn, have not been superseded, they have been 
markedly affected by the growth of our great cities. The intro¬ 
duction of coal, petroleum, steel, concrete and steam power, the 
invention of the steamboat, the railroad and various types of 
labor saving machinery, supplemented by the influence of a 
policy of protective tariff, led to the rapid development of cities 
after 1825. Since that time our cities have been constantly 
growing at the expense of the suburban or rural areas, so that 
today, of our vast national population of approximately 105,000,- 
000 people, one quarter of the entire population lives in 68 
cities, of 100,000 inhabitants or more. This constant drainage 
of rural areas by cities is still progressing, as evidenced by the 
fact that during the last decade in the northeast and the north- 
central states, the increase of urban population has exceeded 
the growth of rural population by 27 per cent. In short, the 
great migratory movement westward, that has hitherto charac¬ 
terized the growth of our country, has ceased and because of 
the potent attractiveness of our cities, those vast centers of 
industry and culture, of degradation and refinement, of gross 
materialism, as well as inspiring spirituality, the theoretical center 
of population ever since colonial days has been shifting west¬ 
ward, has begun to swing eastward as an index of the massing 
of population in the great manufacturing centers of New York, 
Pennslyvania, Ohio and Illinois. 

These facts have a direct relevancy to the discussion of the 
part that our cities have played and still play in the development 
of educational policies. The cities, as well as the federal and 
the state government, have been strong, persistent, beneficial 
influences in the development of educational service, and as the 
cities grow in number, in wealth and in power, they will in¬ 
evitably exert an influence and a control over the development 
of our school program that will be as beneficial and as stimu¬ 
lating in the future as it has been in the past. You may prop¬ 
erly ask just what influence cities have had on the development 


117 



r 

The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


of the educational policies of our country. To put the matter 
briefly it may be stated that the crowding of people into indus¬ 
trial centers, which began during Jackson’s administration, im¬ 
mediately thrust to the front the problem of the proper educa¬ 
tion not only of the poor and those affiliated with religious 
agencies, but of all, irrespective of wealth, religion or social 
status. The need of education for the masses, which was readily 
ignored when the population was thinly and widely scattered 
over rural areas, became a problem of paramount importance in 
relation to intelligent, decent, honest living, as soon as our 
people began to live under conditions such as ordinarily exist 
in great industrial centers. Moreover, the problem of the devel¬ 
opment and the extension of educational service became an 
urgent one from a purely political standpoint. The gradual 
extension of manhood suffrage compelled our statesmen to 
realize the need of an intelligent citizenship unconditioned by 
any considerations of property rights. In 1837, Daniel Web¬ 
ster gave expression to this thought in the following words: 
“Open the doors of the schoolhouses to all the children of the 
land. Let no man have the excuse of poverty for not educating 
his offspring. Place the means of education within his reach 
and if he remain in ignorance, be it his own reproach. On the 
diffusion of education among the people rests the preservation 
and perpetuation of our free institutions.” 

Indeed, the evils incident to the herding of our cities in 
industrial communities led to the rapid displacement of the con¬ 
ception of education as a religious or philanthropic activity, to 
be carried on by private enterprise and endowment for the benefit 
of the indigent, by the sounder modern conception of a free, 
tax-supported, compulsory education as the chief means adopted 
by the nation, the state and the municipality, to insure not only 
the development of the individual, but also the type of social 
and political life and service necessary for the maintenance and 
the advancement of the state. The excellent work of the various 
public school societies after 1806, operating the Lancastrian 
system of instruction in the growing cities of the east, eventually 


118 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


prepared the way for the education of large groups of children 
in graded classes, in specially constructed buildings, with trained 
teachers, at a reasonable per capita cost. In other words, the 
proverbial little red schoolhouse, well fitted to serve the rural 
community of its day, was supplemented by the more complex 
type of school organization developed to meet the needs of city 
conditions. 

In like manner, the city environment not only determined the 
elimination of the small ungraded school, with its narrow three-R 
curriculum, but also compelled a reconstruction of the entire 
life of the school. The denial of experiences in the woods, the 
meadow, the hayloft, the barnyard, the kitchen, the blacksmith's 
shop or the grist-mill led finally to the enrichment of the curricu¬ 
lum by the introduction of such subjects as physical training, 
nature study, manual training and domestic science, subjects 
unknown in the older type of country school. The denial of 
play space to the child of the tenements led to the introduction 
of playgrounds, both within and without the school. Moreover, 
in order properly to house our vast army of pupils and to afford 
facilities for such liberalized education, a special type of school 
architecture consistent with high ideals of beauty, sanitation and 
safety was rapidly devised. 

Increasingly, the pressure of public opinion and criticism 
born of intimate knowledge of the type of education to which 
their children were subjected, led the public to demand that 
teachers be trained for their work and that they be paid salaries 
adequate to attract and to hold competent men and women. 

In brief, just as cities have been a vital influence in relation 
to the industrial, the commercial and the political life of the 
nation, so also have they exerted a continuous stimulating and 
constructive influence in the development of our schools. 

Without indulging in further retrospect let me suggest what 
appears to me to be typical present-day problems in our large 
cities, and to suggest implications with reference to future de¬ 
velopments. 


119 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


I will touch briefly upon certain city school problems 'he 
solution of which is fraught with much difficulty, but which, 
when effected, will represent additional contributions made by 
our large cities to the cause of education. Perhaps one of the 
most important and most perplexing problems is the determina¬ 
tion of the relation of the board of education to the municipality 
on the one hand, and to the state on the other. While the gen¬ 
erally accepted legal theory, as expressed in statutes and 
decisions, is to the effect that education is a state function, car¬ 
ried on chiefly by means of funds provided by the city, the fact 
remains, as evidenced by controversies countrywide that arise 
over the attempts of well-intentioned municipal authorities to 
treat and control educational funds, educational policies, and 
educational administration as identical with those of city depart¬ 
ments, that there is a wide zone of disputed authority that should 
be made the subject of professional study and statutory regu¬ 
lation. Indeed, as long as states make but meagre contributions to 
the funds required for current expenditures for educational 
service within the municipalities, it is more than difficult to 
meet the well sustained arguments of advocates of home rule 
and particularly. to withstand the demand of members of suc¬ 
ceeding political administrations responsible for rising tax rates, 
for a controlling voice with reference to school funds raised by 
tax levy. State supervision and control of education in large 
cities is a legislative theory rather than an actuality. 

A related problem resulting in wide divergence of opinion 
is the method of creating boards of education. Some com¬ 
munities adopt the method of direct appointment by the mayor; 
others, the antithetical method of direct election by the people; 
and others, a middle ground method of appointment by a repre¬ 
sentative commission. All plans are being tried with varying 
degrees of success, but we have still to develop a formula or a 
method which will insure boards of education who will recog¬ 
nize their joint responsibility both to the state and to the muni¬ 
cipality. Identical plans of organization are found amazingly 
successful in some communities and woefully wanting in others. 


120 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


A similar problem arises in relation to the size and the powers 
of the board of education, when created. The general tendency 
countrywide in large cities is toward the creation of small 
boards, preferably of seven or more members, empowered to 
formulate but not to administer educational policies. The suc¬ 
cess of a board of any size, however, is conditioned not so much 
by the number as by the personality of its members. It is for¬ 
tunate indeed that increasingly we find men and women of fine 
attainments, rich experience and splendid civic ideals accepting 
appointment to boards of education not to fatten on patronage 
or to don a mantle of brief authority, but to render to the city 
and to the state the noblest type of public service possible, namely, 
vigilant guardianship and inspiring guidance of our richest in¬ 
heritance, the childern of today, the citizenship of tomorrow. 

The problem of financing educational service is one of ever 
increasing and ever recurring difficulty. Constitutional tax and 
debt limits binding upon the administrative officers of the muni¬ 
cipality and therefore limiting the financial support that may be 
extended to the schools, tend to place the schools in severe 
competition with city departments, in the attempt to secure the 
moneys necessary for efficient management and healthy growth. 
The situation becomes dangerously acute when the state aid is 
inadequate, as it is in most instances, despite the accepted theory 
of education as a state function. 

Perhaps an extreme illustration may give additional signifi¬ 
cance to my remarks. Let us cite the case of New York City: 
Greater New York—like Athens of old—is really a city-state 
containing 54 per cent of the population of the entire state. The 
wonder city of the east has a population of approximately 6,000,- 
000 and a school population of 955,000 pupils. This school popu¬ 
lation is approximately equal to the combined population of 
Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada and New Mexico; or, to' use a 
different illustration, is approximately equal to the combined 
school population of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincin¬ 
nati, Detroit and St. Louis. For the current expenditures of 
such a gigantic system the city spends approximately $90,000,- 


121 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


000, out of a total tax levy of $353,350,000, which according 
to the U. S. Bureau of Education, equals the total amount of 
money expended for educational purposes by sixteen states 
during the year 1920. 

In other words, New York City expends annually, with very 
little aid from either the state or the federal government, a sum 
equal to the aggregate educational expenditures of 


Alabama 

Mississippi 

Arizona 

New Hampshire 

Arkansas 

New Mexico 

Delaware 

Nevada 

Florida 

Rhode Island 

Georgia 

South Carolina 

Idaho 

Vermont 

Maine 

Wyoming 


These enormous expenditures might be made an excuse for 
a learned discussion of the erroneous conclusions recently reached 
by President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation. Such reac¬ 
tionary conclusions are as firebrands in the hands of the dema¬ 
gogue who seeks to destroy the institutional life for which we 
have sacrificed untold lives and treasures. But the report has 
been so widely and so ably discussed that a passing reference 
must suffice. Fortunately a nation dedicated to the development 
of a cosmopolitan civilization founded upon self-government can 
not afford to place the almighty dollar above the interests of the 
child. Is it not a conviction of our people that the race between 
civilization and political catastrophe is being waged not only 
during the halycon days of peace but also during the turbulent 
days of war and that education alone will determine the issue? 
When, as in 1920, of a total national income of $56,000,000,000, 
the nation spent approximately $1,192,000,000 or only 2.13 per 
cent, of the national income for school purposes, is it debatable 
that we should advocate in the interests of childhood, not re¬ 
trenchment, but more liberal expenditures? 

Scrap your navies, disestablish your military organizations, 
if you will, but such actions constitute a national peril unless 


122 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


the moneys thus saved are expended in the promotion of an 
educational service which will make every son and daughter of 
our Republic an intelligent and reverent guardian of our noble 
heritage. The World War was for naught if it did not prove 
that the moral and intellectual fibre of a nation is more significant 
than any degree of material prosperity, and that its quality is 
the fruitage of a sound and adequate educational system. Not 
the last line, but rather the first line of defense, is our public 
school system, for the battles of tomorrow are being won in 
the schools of today. 

However, the financial problem in our great cities in which 
constitutional tax and debt limits exist, which place the city 
school system in competition with city departments, has become 
very acute within the last few years and calls either for new 
modes of taxation to increase the general revenues or for the 
exemption of school moneys from such constitutional limits. 

Do you wonder that constitutional provisions and tax laws of 
olden days, dealing with property rather than production and 
earnings, fail to meet such an extraordinary situation, and that 
the administrative authorities of both the city and the school 
system are inclined to ask if it is not probable that the city, 
especially in view of its transient immigrant population, is 
shouldering a financial burden that should be borne to a greater 
degree by both the state and the federal governments. 

Uninteresting as may be these large problems of city school 
administration to which I have referred, namely, the legal status 
of boards of education, the mode of creating such boards, the 
size of such boards, and the financial difficulties they encounter, 
it should be understood that they absolutely determine the mode 
of administration of school systems. It would be folly to 
assume that there is any well-established satisfactory theory and 
practice with reference to them. Indeed, their solution must be 
painfully and patiently wrought out in the conflict and contro¬ 
versy of great cities and their solution will mark an additional 
contribution made by American cities to the cause of education. 


123 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


Indeed, I am inclined to think that experienced schoolmen will 
concede that the problem of federal aid and supervision is in 
the present moment entirely secondary to a clearer definition 
of the purely internal problems to which I have referred, arising 
in relation to the administration of our city schools. 

If, in a moment of pious aspiration, we may assume that 
such difficulties have been solved, what plans and specifications 
may we, as social engineers, lay down as controlling ideas for 
the future development of our city school system? 

Permit me to refer to the most obvious need which, para¬ 
doxically enough, is most frequently ignored. We must properly 
house our children, not in ancient buildings, insufficient in 
number and defective as regards safety, sanitation and architec¬ 
tural beauty, and deficient in the equipment needed for real 
living on the part of the child. Rather must we provide sufficient 
modern schoolhouses in accordance with well conceived city 
plans, to enable each child to receive full-time schooling in 
buildings which, from the standpoint of safety, sanitation and 
equipment, conform to the highest standards of notable buildings 
built through private enterprise. Above all must our schools be 
enriched by those architectural features and types of equipment 
needed to make them, from the children’s standpoint, real houses 
of golden windows, in which they may live and discover unto 
themselves, in an ideal social environment, the talents God has 
given them. Unless we concentrate on our school building pro¬ 
gram the same careful planning and artistry that we lavish upon 
our modern hospitals, theatres, churches and the chosen marts 
of commerce and industry, we fail to do justice to the latent 
beauty, dignity and worth of our children. 

Need I argue that if we do not supply play space for clean, 
wholesome recreation, we will have to supply jail space, and 
also that as long as our children play in the peril of the gutter 
their spontaneous play instincts, intent only on the passing 
moment, will mean their mutilation or death under the chariot 
wheels which throng our cities of dreadful streets. 


124 




The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


Another thought I would emphasize is that democracy de¬ 
mands for her children an education commensurate with the 
diversity of their talents and the versatility of their genius. 
Not only must the range of educational service extend continu¬ 
ously through the kindergarten, the six-ye^r elementary school, 
the junior high school, the senior high school of different types, 
the vacation school, the continuation school, evening schools of 
elementary and high school grade, but also through the college 
and possibly the university. Moreover, in every stage of the 
pupil’s career, despite the economic necessity of mass instruction, 
the child must be individualized through the application of in¬ 
telligence and achievement tests, so that he will neither strive 
without succeeding nor succeed without striving. To every 
child according to his ability, whether he be a physical or a 
mental defective or a precocious youngster of superb vitality 
and surpassing talent, every opportunity must be extended. We 
must assure to each an equality of opportunity to attain his 
place in the sun. The myth of the so-called average pupil has 
been driven forth as a pariah from our midst, never to return. 
That such ideals are abroad in the land, especially in our city 
systems, is abundantly proved by the general extension of the 
kindergarten, the introduction of the junior high school, con¬ 
tinuation school, summer school, vocational school, evening high 
school, and innumerable classes for all types of exceptional 
children, whether mentally defective, precocious, blind, crippled 
anaemic, tubercular or cardiopathic, and, above all, by the use 
of intelligence and achievement tests as the basis of a system of 
scientific grading. 

Furthermore, there must be a radical reconstruction in our 
present encyclopedic, uniform, devitalized curriculum so as to 
provide for children of varying types of ability and rates of 
achievement, and tojorovide for a more socialized, humanized 
type of content, with a definite community value, so that the 
learner will know and feel that he is in and of the community 
rather than an expectant bystander who watches spin by a 
world which he hopes eventually to overtake and be part of. 
But there can be no finality about our procedure. Catch phrases 


125 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


and their implications, such as project method, apperception, 
method wholes, culture epochs, will each in turn, add to our 
modicum of knowledge and then pass into desuetude, but let us 
welcome them as indications of a divine discontent with present 
procedure and technique and as evidence of a commemdable 
freshness of vision and zest for honorable achievement. 

But we would deceive ourselves if we were to ignore the fact 
that in the last analysis the teacher and the pupil are the polar 
and the ultimate aspects of the teaching situation and that 
therefore future progress in education in our cities and else¬ 
where is absolutely conditioned by the social and economic status 
of teachers in the various communities. Am I too optimistic 
when I predict that no longer will teachers be regarded as pawns 
on a political chessboard and that teaching and administrative 
positions will no longer be regarded as political spoils? Is it 
too much to assume that in the near future there will be no 
large city in which teachers are not appointed from merit lists 
and granted permanent tenure after a reasonable probationary 
period of two or three years’ service? As educational progress 
depends primarily upon the competency of the class-room 
teacher and while it does not appear that practically one half of 
the 657,000 teachers in the United States are inadequately trained, 
it is beyond denial that our city school systems are leading the 
advance and establishing high conditions of eligibility that justify 
the claim of teaching to rank as one of the learned professions. 
As those charged with the sacred responsibility of fashioning 
character, we are in duty bound to perfect our technical knowl¬ 
edge so as to justify our claim to rank among the learned pro¬ 
fessions. But the salaries paid largely condition the kind of 
teacher obtainable. While it is true that the median salary paid 
in large cities is approximately $1,500 per annum, several of the 
leading cities have adopted mandatory minimum salary schedules 
which mark a new epoch in public recognition of the value of 
teachers’ service. Nor is the selection of teachers on the basis 
of a merit system and adequate salary schedules all that is 
needed in the city of the future, to incure an efficient corps. 
Neither tenure nor salary has done more to stabilize the teaching 


126 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


profession and to insure a permanent body of teachers of mature 
skill than the establishment of teacher pensions systems on the 
sound financial basis of joint contributions by the teacher bene¬ 
ficiary and by either the state or the municipality. Disability 
and superannuation have lost their terrors among teachers in 
New York City since the establishment of the teachers’ retire¬ 
ment system in 1917, and I forecast that the day is not far 
removed when teachers in every city throughout the land will 
enjoy the benefits of a similar retirement system. 

The last but not the least pressing problem that I am 
confident city school systems will effectively solve is that of 
supervision. Too long has the administration of our schools 
been characterized by either benevolent autocracy or petty des¬ 
potism. Supervision has too long meant narrow-visioned dicta¬ 
tion and strait-jacketed response. Supervision has been based 
upon domination rather than inspiring leadership, upon fearful 
individual compliance rather than whole-hearted group coopera¬ 
tion. Indeed, one might well evaluate a city school system not 
by the achievements of pupils but by the degree to which 
teachers, individually and collectively, have an interest and a 
voice in the determination and the execution of its policies. The 
spirit, rather than the mechanism, is the matter of real impor¬ 
tance. 

In conclusion, may I state that the educational service of 
your cities will in large measure determine the fate of our 
democracy. Only a literary jester, “a philosopher in cap and 
bells,” like Bernard Shaw, could say, with reference to the 
solution of our social problems: “There is no way out through 
the schoolmaster.” The truth of the matter is that the teachers, 
rather than the manufacturers, financiers or members of other 
learned professions, are the real creators of our material and 
spiritual wealth. As compared with the children of our cities, 
bales of purple merchandise and golden-crowned temples of 
commerce are as worthless tinsel. No one will deny that the 
greatness of our cities is built on honor and that their founda¬ 
tions have as their cornerstone, faith; their phenomenal growth 


127 



The American School Program from the Standpoint of the City 


and amazing prosperity have been founded on clear vision and 
broad human sympathy; their moral power on their cleanliness 
and patriotism. What agency in this great Republic of ours, 
other than the schools, and especially our city schools, can insure 
the attainment of these great and necessary ends? 


128 













